Jenkins Build is giving error "workspace directory not valid" - ant

Question

I am trying to run a ear task with ant on Jenkins. The ant task builds successfully on my local machine.
However, when I try to build using Jenkins, I get the following error: "specified workspace is not valid". I tried hardcoding the workspace value, I tried getting it from the environment variables and I also tried to define it in a custom workspace and then accessing it.
But I keep getting the following error:
[subProjEAR] $ cmd.exe /C '"F:\Build\Ant\apache-ant-1.8.4\bin\ant.bat && exit %%ERRORLEVEL%%"'
Buildfile: E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjectDev\workspace\subProjEAR\build.xml
init.env:
init.typedefs:
Trying to override old definition of task apt
init:
BUILD FAILED
E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjDev\workspace\subProjEAR\build.xml:81: Specified workspace directory "E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjDev\workspace" is not valid.
Total time: 0 seconds
Build step 'Invoke Ant' marked build as failure`
The code snipped around line 81 is as below
<target name="init" depends="init.env,init.typedefs" unless="init.executed">
<property name="init.executed" value="true" />
<fail unless="workspace" message="The workspace property needs to be set!" />
<dirname property="project.dir" file="${ant.file}" />
<property name="echo.metadata" value="false" />
<!-- Line below is no 81 -->
<mdimport workspace="${workspace}" pjdir="${project.dir}" echo="${echo.metadata}">
</mdimport>
<property name="archive.name" value="${project.name}.ear"/>
<property name="uri" value=""/>
</target>
I have created an environment variable named as WORKSPACE in my "local machine". Echoing prints it correctly ( C:\bea\user_projects\w4WP_workspaces\myProjWS). I have also set the WORKSPACE environment variable on the Jenkins machine. This is the same workspace as Jenkins. Echo on Jenkins prints the below:
Buildfile: E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjectDev\workspace\subProjEAR\build.xml
init.env:
init.typedefs:
Trying to override old definition of task apt
init:
[echo] workspace : E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjectDev\workspace
[echo] weblogic workspace : ${env.WORKSHOP_WORKSPACE}
BUILD FAILED
E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjectDev\workspace\subProjEAR\build.xml:85: Specified workspace directory "E:\Jenkins\jobs\ProjectDev\workspace" is not valid.
Please help.

Answer 1

Best way to access WORKSPACE from ANT is through:
<property environment="env" />
<echo message="${env.WORKSPACE}" />
It doesn't seem like a Jenkins error, as Jenkins is able to successfully load the build file from that workspace. What is on line: 81 of that build.xml? The cause of the problem is there. Paste a snippet of your build file around line: 81
Edit after author comments
So, as I guessed, it wasn't anything to do with Jenkins. The issue is with <mdimport> task. So far, I've been able to find zero documentation about it, other that it comes from Weblogic
It is this task that is throwing the error. And considering that Weblogic and Jenkins have little to do with each other, I doubt you should be passing Jenkins's workspace for this task. It is probably looking for some Weblogic workspace.
Do you have a Weblogic workspace checked out under a subfolder in Jenkins, like my_checkout_folder? If so, maybe you should use ${workspace}/my_checkout_folder for that task?
In this issue from someone, they are reading ${workspace}/workspace.xml file
In this example (which looks very similar to yours), the value of workspace comes from environment variable WORKSHOP_WORKSPACE. Do you have that environment variable set on your local machine (the one where it works)?
Probable cause
It just came to me, while reviewing your question.
You said it works on local machine, but not on Jenkins.
If you are using the same ant file on both, means you are expecting an environment variable workspace to be present on your local machine, right? (Otherwise the same ant script wouldn't have worked on local)
Jenkins, when executing a build, has its own environment variable workspace which has nothing to do with the one you might be having on your local machine. Jenkins's workspace variable defines its job's working directory.
Even if you manually set a global workspace environment variable on Jenkins machine, it will be overwritten by the job's workspace everytime it runs.
Do the following test:
echo workspace environment variable on your local machine
in Jenkins job, use "execute shell" (or "execute windows batch command") to echo workspace from within the job.
Paste the result here. But you can also compare them yourself.