Retry a Jenkins pipeline job on a specific error message - jenkins

Question

So without Jenkins Pipeline the Naginator Plugin allows to restart a specific build on failure using regular expressions.
I like the retry option in Jenkins pipeline but I am not sure if I can catch an error from the build in the catch block and do a retry.
Is there a way to do so?
Eg: I have jenkins build which runs make. now make fails with an error: "pg_config.h missing". I want to catch this error and retry the build again a couple of times.
How can I do the above? Also, is it possible to catch multiple errors similar to regular expressions in Naginator somehow using pipelines?

Answer 1

retry("3"){
try {
sh "${cmd} 2>&1 > cmdOutput.txt"
sh "cat cmdOutput.txt"
} catch(FlowInterruptedException interruptEx) {
throw interruptEx
} catch(err) {
def cmdOutput = readFile('cmdOutput.txt').trim()
if (cmdOutput.contains("pg_config.h missing")) {
error "Command failed with error : ${err}. Retrying ...."
} else {
echo "Command failed with error other than `pg_config.h missing`"
}
}
}

Answer 2

I use the 'waitUntil' step and a counter to retry a shell command. I capture the output of the shell command so that I can run regex checks against the output and then continue or exit the loop.
// example pipeline
pipeline {
agent {
label ""
}
stages {
// stage('clone repo') {
// steps {
// git url: 'https://github.com/your-account/project.git'
// }
// }
// stage ('install') {
// steps {
// sh 'npm install'
// }
// }
stage('build') {
steps {
script {
// wrap with timeout so the job aborts if no activity
timeout(activity: true, time: 5, unit: 'MINUTES') {
// loop until the inner function returns true
waitUntil {
// setup or increment "count" counter and max value
count = (binding.hasVariable('count')) ? count + 1 : 1
countMax = 3
println "try: $count"
// Note: you must include the "|| true" after your command,
// so that the exit code always returns as 0. The "sh" command is
// actually running '/bin/sh -xe'. The '-e' option forces the script
// to exit on non-zero exit code. Prevent this by forcing a 0 exit code
// by adding "|| true"
// execute command and capture stdout
// Uncomment one of these 3 lines to test different conditions.
output = sh returnStdout: true, script: 'echo "Finished: SUCCESS" || true'
// output = sh returnStdout: true, script: 'echo "BUILD FAILED" || true'
// output = sh returnStdout: true, script: 'echo "something else happened" || true'
// show the output in the log
println output
// run different regex tests against the output to check the state of your build
buildOK = output ==~ /(?s).*Finished: SUCCESS.*/
buildERR = output ==~ /(?s).*BUILD FAILED.*/
// then check your conditions
if (buildOK) {
return true // success, so exit loop
} else if (buildERR) {
if (count >= countMax) {
// count exceeds threshold, so throw an error (exits pipeline)
error "Retried $count times. Giving up..."
}
// wait a bit before retrying
sleep time: 5, unit: 'SECONDS'
return false // repeat loop
} else {
// throw an error (exits pipeline)
error 'Unknown error - aborting build'
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
// post {
// always {
// cleanWs notFailBuild: true
// }
// }
}