Gitlab docker runner problem with path. gitlab-ci.yml - docker

Question

I'm trying to run a pipeline in Gitlab using gitlab-ci.yml file and a runner which can run docker images, but I got an error because the runner cannot find the right path to the Dockerfile
this is my yml file
image: docker:latest
services:
- docker:dind
stages:
- build
- test
- release
variables:
TEST_IMAGE: 193.206.43.98:5555/apfeed/apserver:$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME
RELEASE_IMAGE: 193.206.43.98:5555/ap:latest
before_script:
- docker login -u "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" -p "$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" "$CI_REGISTRY"
build:
stage: build
script:
- docker build --pull -t $TEST_IMAGE .
- docker push $TEST_IMAGE
test:
stage: test
services:
- mongo:bionic
script:
- docker pull $TEST_IMAGE
- docker run $TEST_IMAGE npm test
release:
stage: release
script:
- docker pull $TEST_IMAGE
- docker tag $TEST_IMAGE $RELEASE_IMAGE
- docker push $RELEASE_IMAGE
only:
And this is the error I get
$ docker build --pull -t $TEST_IMAGE .
unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: lstat /home/gitlab-runner/builds/WsYiLtmC/0/al/apfeed/Dockerfile: no such file or directory
ERROR: Job failed: exit status 1
I tried several different ways of write the path in the line TEST IMAGE but none seems to work

Answer 1

You must have Dockerfile in the project root directory
OR
You can pass the relative path to your Dockerfile if it exists in a subdirectory in the project repo.
e.g. docker build --pull -t $TEST_IMAGE -f ./some-dir/Dockerfile .
some-dir == the directory inside your project repo where Dockerfile is located.
The project repo is first cloned into CI_PROJECT_DIR before each job is executed and
CI_PROJECT_DIR is the dir where the .gitlab-ci.yml is gonna exist and the job scripts also run from that directory as well.
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/README.html