Uploading Artifacts to Third‑Party Repositories Using Nexus API and GitLab Package Registry

This article demonstrates how to publish build artifacts to third‑party repositories, using Nexus as an example and then showing how to use GitLab's built‑in package registry.

Upload to Nexus – By invoking the Nexus REST API, a CI job can rename the generated JAR, then use curl -X POST with multipart/form‑data to push the artifact to a local repository.

.pushartifact:
  tags:
    - build
  stage: pushartifact
  script:
    |- 
      if [[ ${PROJECT_TYPE} == "java" ]];then
        pkgName=`ls target/ | grep -e "jar$"`
        cd target/
        mv ${pkgName} ${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-${CI_COMMIT_SHA}.jar
        curl -X POST "http://192.168.1.200:8081/service/rest/v1/components?repository=mylocalrepo" \
          -H "accept: application/json" \
          -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
          -F "raw.directory=/${CI_PROJECT_ROOT_NAMESPACE}/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/${CI_COMMIT_SHA}/" \
          -F "raw.asset1=@${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-${CI_COMMIT_SHA}.jar;type=application/java-archive" \
          -F "raw.asset1.filename=${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-${CI_COMMIT_SHA}.jar" \
          -u admin:admin123
      else
        echo "PROJECT_TYPE ERROR [java]"
      fi

Upload to GitLab Built‑in Repository – GitLab can act as a private or public package registry for various package types. Supported repository types are shown in the original images.

Generic Repository Authentication

User personal token (not linked to pipeline)

CI job token (${CI_JOB_TOKEN})

Deploy token created in project settings

Upload Package API

PUT /projects/:id/packages/generic/:package_name/:package_version/:file_name?status=:status

Parameters:

id – Project ID (required)

package_name – Package name (required)

package_version – Package version (required)

file_name – File name (required)

status – Package status, optional values [default/hidden] (default shows in UI)

Example upload command:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: apF1R9s9JJBYJzLF5mYd" \
  --upload-file sonar-gitlab-plugin-4.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar \
  "http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/33/packages/generic/devops03-maven-service/0.0.1/sonar-gitlab-plugin-4.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar?status=default"

Example response:

{
  "message":"201 Created"
}

If a package with the same name and version already exists, the new file is added as an additional version and can still be accessed via UI or API.

Download Package API

GET /projects/:id/packages/generic/:package_name/:package_version/:file_name

Parameters are the same as for upload (id, package_name, package_version, file_name).

Example download command:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN:
" \
  "http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/33/packages/generic/devops03-maven-service/0.0.1/sonar-gitlab-plugin-4.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar"

GitLab CI/CD Example

.pushartforgitlab:
  tags:
    - build
  stage: pushartifact
  script:
    |- 
      if [[ ${PROJECT_TYPE} == "java" ]]; then
        newPkgName=${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-${CI_COMMIT_SHA}.jar
        pkgName=`ls target/ | grep -e "jar$"`
        cd target/
        mv ${pkgName} ${newPkgName}
        curl --header "JOB-TOKEN: ${CI_JOB_TOKEN}" \
          --upload-file ${newPkgName} \
          "http://192.168.1.200/api/v4/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/packages/generic/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}/${CI_COMMIT_SHA}/${newPkgName}?status=default"
      else
        echo "PROJECT_TYPE ERROR [java]"
      fi

The content originates from the "DevOps Practice Training Camp" (Issue 3) and includes promotional links to further DevOps learning resources.