I have a Jenkins build that can either be triggered via scheduling, by a user requesting it, or by being called as a build step from other builds. If this build is called as part of another build, it needs to save some information for the larger build to use. I want to pass this information back up by writing to a file. The only problem is having the builds agree on a location to write to.
One approach is to write it to a well known location, but this does not allow several builds to be run in parallel since one will clobber the other.
Another is to add a build parameter to the build that other builds will fill in with a file location to write to. This, to me, seems like a bit of a hack since it means that whenever the build is run, it will need to have a parameter passed in, even if it is just starting with the default value.
The final approach that I considered was having the parent build set an environment variable in the build and having the child check for the existence and content of the variable and act appropriately. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to set this up in Jenkins.
It seems to me that a combination of archiving artifacts in post build and the Copy Artifact Plugin would do the job.
It sounds like you need the Parameterized Trigger Plugin.
Related
I have a job to maven build our project, we now have one job per release version. As the number of releases grows, there are too many jobs and very hard to find the one we need.
I wonder if there is a way to launch the same job with different parameters? The problem is one job only has one workspace, so I'm not sure if it's possible?
Thanks.
Use This build is Parameterized option to build the jobs. Using this you can build the same job for different parameters. You will be asked to enter the parameter before building or you can also give a default parameter and you can have multiple parameters.
It is good the archive the artifacts which you need later.
You can also have the option keep build forever, this will keep the builds permanently Ir-respective of the number of builds to keep.
To use above option you should enable Discard old build option.
You can also link your repository directly to Jenkins which will trigger the job whenever a new commit is made to master or a new tag is created.
I've used jenkins for quite a few years but have never set it up myself which I did at my new job. There are a couple questions and issues that I ran into.
Default workspace location - It seems like the latest Jenkins has the default workspace in Jenkins\jobs[projectName]\workspace and is overwritten (or wiped if selected) for every build. I thought that it should instead be in Jenkins\jobs[projectName]\builds[build_id]\ so that it would be able to store the workspace state for every build for future reference?
Displaying workspace on the project>Build_ID page - This goes along with the previous as I expected each 'workspace' for previous builds to show here. Currently in my setup this individual page gives you nothing except the Git revision and what repo changes triggered the build. As well as console output. Where are the artifacts? Where is the link to this build's workspace that was used?
Archiving Artifacts in builds - When choosing artifacts, the filter doesn't seem to work. My build creates a filestructure with the artifacts in it inside workspace. I want to store this and the artifacts filter says it starts at workspace. So I put in 'artifacts' and nothing gets stores (also where would this get stored?). I have also tried '/artifacts' and 'artifacts/*'.
Any help would be great! Thanks!
It does seem like you are confused about several aspects of Jenkins.. I think your question basically boils down to the following.
What is a difference between a workspace and a build?
So, here are some thoughts on this topic:
Builds are historical data. They (usually) don't change like a workspace does during building/checkout.
Builds contain information about a run (e.g. its status, build number, change log, etc) and any artifacts that you tell it to archive (logs, test results, etc). They (usually) don't contain source code like a workspace.
Builds are stored in the Jenkins\jobs\[projectName]\builds\[build_id]\ directory. This is a directory managed by Jenkins and you (usually) do not need to modify anything in this directory. However, workspaces are directories meant for the build and you can do pretty much anything with them and place them anywhere (it does not need to be in the default Jenkins\jobs\[projectName]\workspace directory.
Workspaces should be able to be wiped at any given time. To restore it, just rebuild the job with the same parameters/revision. If you need to keep something after a build, tell Jenkins to archive it before the build is done.
In regard to saving the entire state, I don't think you need to do that. As mentioned in #4, you should be able to reproduce the same build by kicking off the same revision/parameters as the build in question. If you cannot get back to the original state from the same revision/parameters, then that might be something to strive for as debugging is going to be a nightmare. :)
A workspace is an aspect of the project and not a build and that is why there is no link to the workspace from that page. Again, a build is just saved data from a previous run. A project uses the workspace to build stuff and that is why you can get to the workspace from that page.
In regard to how to save artifacts, you must specify the names of the files you want to save. Unless you are trying to save a file called "artifacts", then you should probably use something else. How about **/*.log for all log files? or **/*.xml for all xml files?
Hope this helps.
Is it possible to set the build result for a build after that build is complete?
I could not find any plugins that do this already, and I was considering writing my own, but I wanted to see if this was even possible before going down that path.
(I have looked at existing code and how the "Fail The Build" plugin works as an example, but my understanding of the Jenkins code base is not advanced enough to understand what all the possibilities are.)
Use case: we have a build pipeline, and near the end of the pipeline there is a deploy-to-qa step that deploys the artifact to a QA environment. We have automated tests before this step to try to catch any problems with the artifact, but our test coverage is not very high in some areas so bugs could still slip through the cracks. I'd like to have the ability to mark a deploy-to-qa build as FAILED after the fact, to denote that that particular pipeline was invalid and is not a candidate for production release. (Basically the same as this Build Pipeline Plugin issue)
After some more investigation in the code, I believe that this is not possible.
From hudson.model.Run:
public void setResult(Result r) {
// state can change only when we are building
assert state==State.BUILDING;
// snip
...
}
So the build result cannot change except when in "building" state.
I could try to muck with the lastSuccessful and lastStable symlinks (as is done with the delete() function in hudson.model.AbstractBuild), but then those would be reset as soon as Jenkins reloaded the build results from jobs/JOBNAME/builds/.
I have an untested suggestion: Make a parametrized build, where the parameter determines if build will fail or not (for example simple bat / shell script testing the parameter from the environment variable it sets, and doing exit 0 or exit 1). This assumes that build pipelines manually triggered step will ask the parameters, and not use default values.
If it does not support interactive build parameters, then some other way is needed to tell this extra build step wether it should fail or not. Maybe editing upstream build description or display name to indicate failure, and then allowing build pipeline to continue to this extra build step, which probably has to use system groovy script to dig out upstream build description or display name.
I have seen several debates on this topic previously, and the outcome was always that it is theoretically possible to do so, but the codebase is not designed to allow this and it would have to be a very hacky workaround.
It's also been said that this is a bad practice in general, although I don't remember what the argument against it was.
I am facing the same requirement. I haven't found an appropriate plugin, changing the build status is not just a flag but has other impacts on links (eg latest successful build etc). So instead of changing the status of the build I looked for a possibility for qualifying the build. The Promoted Builds Plugin apply flags to build to define e.g. different quality stages. Build promotions can be performed manually or based on e.g. downstream project successful builds. Any successful build can be qualified, based on the promotion additional build and post build actions can be executed, e.g tagging or archiving.
Actually I was able to do it by changing the build.xml manually to <result>FAILURE</result>.
I've then played a little bit with mklink to create some symbolic links and also renamed the lastSuccessfulBuild to lastFailedBuild and it worked. If you are allowed to access the filesystem from within a Jenkins PlugIn, then it is possible to write one.
In case you are fine to delete the current build and start the same build using a version number and setting the next BUILD_NUMBER to the deleted one, then you could use this plugin to tell it to fail instead of succeed:
Fail The Build Plugin
I have a fairly complicated Jenkins job that builds, unit tests and packages a web application. Depending on the situation, I would like to do different things once this job completes. I have not found a re-usable/maintainable way to do this. Is that really the case or am I missing something?
The options I would like to have once my complicated job completes:
Do nothing
Start my low-risk-change build pipeline:
copies my WAR file to my artifact repository
deploys to production
Start my high-risk-change build pipeline:
copies my WAR file to my artifact repository
deploys to test
run acceptance tests
deploy to production
I have not found an easy way to do this. The simplest, but not very maintainable approach would be to make three separate jobs, each of which kicks off a downstream build. This approach scares me for a few reasons including the fact that changes would have to be made in three places instead of one. In addition, many of the downstream jobs are also nearly identical. The only difference is which downstream jobs they call. The proliferation of jobs seems like it would lead to an un-maintainable mess.
I have looked at using several approaches to keep this as one job, but none have worked so far:
Make the job a multi-configuration project (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Building+a+matrix+project). This provides a way to inject the job with a parameter. I have not found a way to make the "build other projects" step respond to a parameter.
Use the Parameterized-Trigger plugin (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Parameterized+Trigger+Plugin). This plugin lets you trigger downstream-jobs based on certain triggers. The triggers appear to be too restrictive though. They're all based on the state of the build, not arbitrary variables. I don't see any option provided here that would work for my use case.
Use the Flexible Publish plugin (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Flexible+Publish+Plugin). This plugin has the opposite problem as the parameterized-trigger plugin. It has many useful conditions it can check, but it doesn't look like it can start building another project. Its actions are limited to publishing type activities.
Use Flexible Publish + Any Build Step plugin (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Any+Build+Step+Plugin). The Any Build Step plugin allows making any build action available to the Flexible Publish plugin. While more actions were made available once this plugin was activated, those actions didn't include "build other projects."
Is there really not an easy way to do this? I'm surprised that I haven't found it and even more surprised that I haven't really seen any one else trying to do this? Am I doing something unusual? Is there something obvious that I am missing?
If I understood it correct you should be able to do this by following these Steps:
First Build Step:
Does the regular work. In your case: building, unit testing and packaging of the web application
Depending on the result let it create a file with a specific name.
This means if you want the low-risk-change to run afterwards create a file low-risk.prop
Second Build Step:
Create a Trigger/call builds on other projects Step from the Parameterized-Trigger
plugin.
Entery the name of your low-risk job into the Projects to build field
Click on: Add Parameter
Choose: Parameters from properties File
Enter low-risk.prop into the Use properties from file Field
Enable Don't trigger if any files are missing
Third Build Step:
Check if a low-risk.prop file exists
Delete the File
Do the same for the high-risk job
Now you should have the following Setup:
if a file called low-risk.prop occurs during the first Build Step the low-risk job will be started
if a file called high-risk.prop occurs during the first Build Step the high-risk job will be started
if there's no .prop File nothing happens
And that's what you wanted to achieve. Isn't it?
Have you looked at the Conditional Build Plugin? (https://wiki.jenkins.io/display/JENKINS/Conditional+BuildStep+Plugin)
I think it can do what you're looking for.
If you want a conditional post-build step, there is a plugin for that:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Post+build+task
It will search the console log for a RegEx you specify, and if found, will execute a custom script. You can configure fairly complex criteria, and you can configure multiple sets of criteria each executing different post build tasks.
It doesn't provide you with the usual "build step" actions, so you've got to write your own script there. You can trigger execution of the same job with different parameters, or another job with some parameters, in standard ways that jenkins supports (for example using curl)
Yet another alternative is Jenkins text finder plugin:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Text-finder+Plugin
This is a post-build step that allows to forcefully mark a build as "unstable" if a RegEx is found in console text (or even some file in workspace). So, in your build steps, depending on your conditions, echo a unique line into console log, and then do a RegEx for that line. You can then use "Trigger parameterized buids" and set the condition as "unstable". This has an added benefit of visually marking the build different (with a yellow ball), however you only have 1 conditional option with this method, and from your OP, looks like you need 2.
Try a combination of these 2 methods:
Do you use Ant for your builds?
If so, it's possible to do conditional building in ant by having a set of environment variables your build scripts can use to conditionally build. In Jenkins, your build will then be building all of the projects, but your actual build will decide whether it builds or just short-circuits.
I think the way to do it is to add an intermediate job that you put in the post-build step and pass to it all the parameters your downstream jobs could possibly need, and then within that job place conditional builds for the real downstream jobs.
The simplest approach I found is to trigger other jobs remotely, so that you can use Conditional Build Plugin or any other plugins to build other jobs conditionally.
There's too much routine with building next project version using ant. The routine is in several properties files that must be edited before running ant task. I took a look at Jenkins as a system to make builds (including night ones) but I have a problem with changing properties.
Is it possible (if yes, how can I do it) to type parameters in Jenkins configuration before build in order they will be passed to ant?
What I really mean is the following schema (I used in manual builds):
there're 2 properties files that contain data about build version, src destination, emails to notify about new build and so on.
corresponding properties' keys are used in Ant tasks and these properties are changed manually before build.
some properties are read by Java util and used for their own part during build.
there're also 3 or 4 ant XMLs that a imported in build.xml, and these xmls also read properties from mentioned files.
What I want to do is:
change key properties in Jenkins
press build project
my data will overwrite data in properties files OR will be passed as ant vars values straight to the ant's task(s).
as a result I receive new build with corresponding notifications (they're made through ant)
Are there mechanisms that allow one to make such schema work via Jenkins?
Thank you in advance.
In Jenkins, you can use the parameterised build feature to specify those parameters you need to substitute into your build.
For example, if specify a parameter called server and, when clicking "Build Now", you enter test, the build will be executed with an environment variable you can access called ${server}.
Then, in your "Invoke Ant" build step, if you press Advanced..., this reveals a "Properties" field. Here you can enter my.ant.property=${server}.
That's equivalent to calling ant -Dmy.ant.property=${server}, and will be expanded to ant -Dmy.ant.property=test.
Another option : Set environment variables for the scope of the build using this Env plugin. So if the properties you are using are environment variables or can be set as them then you want to use this one. Though it might involve some effort in changing the build scripts, but it can be a good option :
Q : Why would I use this one as I already have parametrized build plugin
A : Because the parametrized build plugin requires human interaction if there is more than 1 choice. For example building for Release 1 or Release 2 or Test branch.
While in the Env plugin, you can set the property once for each choice and then create a respective job for each. Then just schedule the job(s) thereby eliminating the human factor.