[PATCH v3 1/4] Jobs based on custom runners: documentation and configuration placeholder

[Cleber Rosa]

As described in the included documentation, the "custom runner" jobs
extend the GitLab CI jobs already in place.

Those jobs are intended to run on hardware and/or Operating Systems
not provided by GitLab's shared runners.

Signed-off-by: Cleber Rosa <crosa@redhat.com>
---
 .gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml | 14 +++++++++
 .gitlab-ci.yml                  |  1 +
 docs/devel/ci.rst               | 54 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 docs/devel/index.rst            |  1 +
 4 files changed, 70 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml
 create mode 100644 docs/devel/ci.rst

diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml b/.gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3004da2bda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# The CI jobs defined here require GitLab runners installed and
+# registered on machines that match their operating system names,
+# versions and architectures.  This is in contrast to the other CI
+# jobs that are intended to run on GitLab's "shared" runners.
+
+# Different than the default approach on "shared" runners, based on
+# containers, the custom runners have no such *requirement*, as those
+# jobs should be capable of running on operating systems with no
+# compatible container implementation, or no support from
+# gitlab-runner.  To avoid problems that gitlab-runner can cause while
+# reusing the GIT repository, let's enable the recursive submodule
+# strategy.
+variables:
+  GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 8ffd415ca5..b33c433fd7 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ include:
   - local: '/.gitlab-ci.d/opensbi.yml'
   - local: '/.gitlab-ci.d/containers.yml'
   - local: '/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuilds.yml'
+  - local: '/.gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml'
 
 .native_build_job_template: &native_build_job_definition
   stage: build
diff --git a/docs/devel/ci.rst b/docs/devel/ci.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..41a4bbddad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/devel/ci.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+==
+CI
+==
+
+QEMU has configurations enabled for a number of different CI services.
+The most up to date information about them and their status can be
+found at::
+
+   https://wiki.qemu.org/Testing/CI
+
+Jobs on Custom Runners
+======================
+
+Besides the jobs run under the various CI systems listed before, there
+are a number additional jobs that will run before an actual merge.
+These use the same GitLab CI's service/framework already used for all
+other GitLab based CI jobs, but rely on additional systems, not the
+ones provided by GitLab as "shared runners".
+
+The architecture of GitLab's CI service allows different machines to
+be set up with GitLab's "agent", called gitlab-runner, which will take
+care of running jobs created by events such as a push to a branch.
+Here, the combination of a machine, properly configured with GitLab's
+gitlab-runner, is called a "custom runner" here.
+
+The GitLab CI jobs definition for the custom runners are located under::
+
+  .gitlab-ci.d/custom-runners.yml
+
+Current Jobs
+------------
+
+The current CI jobs based on custom runners have the primary goal of
+catching and preventing regressions on a wider number of host systems
+than the ones provided by GitLab's shared runners.
+
+Also, the mechanics of reliability, capacity and overall maintanance
+of the machines provided by the QEMU project itself for those jobs
+will be evaluated.
+
+Future Plans and Jobs
+---------------------
+
+Once the CI Jobs based on custom runners have been proved mature with
+the initial set of jobs run on machines from the QEMU project, other
+members in the community should be able provide their own machine
+configuration documentation/scripts, and accompanying job definitions.
+
+As a general rule, those newly added contributed jobs should run as
+"non-gating", until their reliability is verified.
+
+The precise minimum requirements and exact rules for machine
+configuration documentation/scripts, and the success rate of jobs are
+still to be defined.
diff --git a/docs/devel/index.rst b/docs/devel/index.rst
index 77baae5c77..2fdd36e751 100644
--- a/docs/devel/index.rst
+++ b/docs/devel/index.rst
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ Contents:
    atomics
    stable-process
    testing
+   ci
    qtest
    decodetree
    secure-coding-practices
-- 
2.25.4