Cleaning jenkins workspace - jenkins

Question

What is a good strategy for cleaning Jenkins workspace? After getting started with Jenkins in a large team, available workspace space is shrinking, even through jobs/pipelines seems to do due diligence to clean after themselves.
The current approach I am trying: iterate through every node (including master),
under $WORKSPACE, find and delete directories over given age. Does this seem safe?
I tried online groovy code snippets to run via Jenkins console, and those got rejected with errors. I'd rather stick with simple code that is known to work.
Many thanks.

Answer 1

I have a stage for each run that cleans the work space:
node {
try {
stage('Clean Work Space') {
cleanWs()
sh 'pwd'
sh 'ls'
}
}
}
I would also refer to: https://jenkins.io/doc/pipeline/steps/ws-cleanup/

Answer 2

You can use the "Discard Old Builds" option on the Jobs to limit the number of builds stored for every job. This will reduce the disk space usage.

Answer 3

you can use deleteDir() command to clean the work space.

Answer 4

The best strategy to delete the Workspaces is to either go by Sprint numbers (if you are using agile) or by Date modified (to retain latest top 5).
I have created a script that has Groovy scripts for both of the strategies mentioned above.
Here is my detailed blog on strategies to delete Jenkins workspace for all jobs and individual jobs.
https://medium.com/#vishnuteja/jenkins-cleanup-workspace-reduce-disk-usage-18310097d3ef
Here is the code for cleaning up workspaces by Date modified.
import jenkins.*
import jenkins.model.*
import hudson.*
import hudson.model.*
//manager.listener.logger.println new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()).format('MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss a') + " / " + " -- Start Time"
//Get value from String Parameter
MAX_BUILDS = manager.build.buildVariables.get("MAX_BUILDS").toInteger()
for (job in Jenkins.instance.items)
{
int count = 0
manager.listener.logger.println "\n ***Job Name: "+job.name+"***"
if(job.workspace!=null && job.workspace!="") //Check if there is a workspace associated with the Job
{
manager.listener.logger.println "Workspace path : " + job.workspace
String workspace = job.workspace
File folder = new File(workspace)
if(folder!=null && folder.exists()) //Check if the Workspace folder exists
{
// Get all files and folders within the Workspace of current job.
//Iterate through only folders and sort em by Modified Date.
File[] files = new File(workspace).listFiles().sort(){
a,b -> b.lastModified().compareTo a.lastModified()
}
.each{
if(!it.isFile()) //Check only for folders
{
if(count < MAX_BUILDS)
manager.listener.logger.println new Date(it.lastModified()).format('MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss a') + " /" + it.name + " -- Save"
else
{
manager.listener.logger.println new Date(it.lastModified()).format('MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss a') + " /" + it.name + " ** Deleted"
it.deleteDir()
}
count++
}
}
}
else
{
manager.listener.logger.println "Workspace is empty or doesn't exist"
}
}
else
{
manager.listener.logger.println "No Workspace associated with this job"
}
}
}
//manager.listener.logger.println new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()).format('MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss a') + " / " + " -- End Time"