Documentation unclear: Are when blocks necessary?

[neuschaefer]

I am currently struggling to get a woodpecker workflow going, and I think my problems are related to when blocks.

The documentation states:

when - Conditional Execution
Woodpecker supports defining a list of conditions for a step by using a when block. [...]

My naive interpretation is:

• when is for conditional execution. I don't need to specify it for unconditional execution (run this workflow on every suitable event)

But I suspect I am wrong about this, because I get a "bad habit" warning when I don't specify a when block, and for some reason which I have not fully investigated, my workflows aren't automatically triggered by a push.

Related but different issue: #3773

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The second thing that I'm unclear about is whether when blocks can be specified per workflow file, or only inside a step. As far as I understand the examples in the documentation, both are possible.

[zc-devs]

when is for conditional execution. I don't need to specify it for unconditional execution

You are right. Worked 5 days ago #3655 (comment).

workflows aren't automatically triggered by a push

Check if webhook works.

whether when blocks can be specified per workflow file, or only inside a step. As far as I understand the examples in the documentation, both are possible.

both are possible

when - Global workflow conditions
when - Conditional Execution

[neuschaefer]

Thank you for your clarifications!

I'm not sure how to check if webhooks work, because I don't run this woodpecker instance (it is https://ci.codeberg.org)

[qwerty287]

I'm not sure how to check if webhooks work

Check the webhook settings at codeberg.

Note that there's a bug currently if you enabled the repo recently you have to use Repair repository after enabling to get it working.

[neuschaefer]

After clicking "repair repository", builds are indeed triggered by push.

Unfortunately I can't really provide more information, but my problems are solved now. Thank you for your patience!

[qwerty287]

That was a bug on our end, but it's fixed in 2.6.0

[qwerty287]

But I suspect I am wrong about this, because I get a "bad habit" warning when I don't specify a when block

You should filter your pipelines by event because we may add additional events in the future and you probably don't want to run your pipelines on every of them. See https://woodpecker-ci.org/docs/usage/linter#event-filter-for-all-steps

[neuschaefer]

Thank you. It's starting to make sense.