diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index fb01be6..6db6f32 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -34,8 +34,9 @@
     - start_section install_linux_packages "Installing missing Linux packages"
     - mkdir -pv $APT_CACHE_DIR ccache
     - apt-get update && apt-get -o dir::cache::archives="$APT_CACHE_DIR" -y install ccache cmake libgflags-dev libsnappy-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev liblz4-dev libzstd-dev libomp-dev
-    - ln -s $(which ccache) /usr/local/sbin/gcc
-    - ln -s $(which ccache) /usr/local/sbin/g++
+    # ccache only makes the build faster, it must never be able to make it fail,
+    # so everything that uses it is guarded and CCACHE_OPTS stays empty without it
+    - if CCACHE=$(command -v ccache); then ln -sf "$CCACHE" /usr/local/sbin/gcc && ln -sf "$CCACHE" /usr/local/sbin/g++ && CCACHE_OPTS="-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache"; else echo "ccache is not available - building without it"; CCACHE_OPTS=""; fi
     - end_section install_linux_packages
 
     - start_section install_rocksdb_static "Building and installing rocksdb-static"
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@
     - cd rocksdb
     - export PROCS=$(nproc)
     - make -j $PROCS static_lib DISABLE_WARNING_AS_ERROR=1 WARNING_FLAGS=-w
-    - ccache --show-stats
+    - command -v ccache > /dev/null && ccache --show-stats || true
     - make install-static DISABLE_WARNING_AS_ERROR=1 WARNING_FLAGS=-w
     - end_section install_rocksdb_static
 
@@ -59,9 +60,9 @@
     - cd collocatordb
     - mkdir -p build
     - cd build
-    - cmake -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache ..
+    - cmake $CCACHE_OPTS ..
     - make
-    - ccache --show-stats
+    - command -v ccache > /dev/null && ccache --show-stats || true
     - make install # && ctest --extra-verbose
     - ldconfig
     - end_section install_collocatordb
@@ -119,7 +120,6 @@
         VID: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
   stage: build
   before_script:
-    - env
     - apk update
     - apk add --no-cache git
   script:
@@ -146,7 +146,6 @@
   services:
     - docker:dind
   script:
-    - env
     - unxz -c derekovecs.tar.xz | docker load
     - echo "$DOCKER_HUB_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$DOCKER_HUB_USERNAME" --password-stdin
     - docker push idscorpuslinguistics/derekovecs:$VID