Installing Jenkins plugins via API? [duplicate] - jenkins

Question

I would like to know, how can I install a plugin to Jenkins, using the Jenkins Remote
access API?
I found a way to install using jenkins CLI. But I need to know how to do the same using API.
I tried using jenkins-python library. But I did not find any way to
install plugin there.

Answer 1

Send (HTTP POST) the following xml data (with your plugin-id#version) to Jenkins plugin manager. Check out my jenkins install plugin script on gist.
This HTTP POST request install jenkins git plugin 2.0.
curl -X POST -d '<jenkins><install plugin="git#2.0" /></jenkins>' --header 'Content-Type: text/xml' http://localhost:8080/pluginManager/installNecessaryPlugins

Answer 2

Some plugins are hard to update on the file system because others depend on it (credentials is one example). For such plugins it is only possible to update them using the web interface.
Jenkins frontend has a page under 'Manage Jenkins' -> 'Manage Plugins'. Under the 'Advanced' tab is a form to 'uploadPlugin'. It allows web automation with curl, you might need to add authentication.
curl -i -F file=#pluginfilename.hpi http://jenkinshost/jenkins/pluginManager/uploadPlugin

Answer 3

In addition to the methods already mentioned (I personally used the "curl uploadPlugin" one provided by #bbaassssiiee), you need to consider that if you use pluginManager Jenkins will try to load your plugin dinamically, but in case you need to restart Jenkins to initialize the plugin properly (this was my case), you should add:
curl -kX POST https://${JENKINS_URL}/safeRestart
In case you copy the plugin directly to jenkins/plugin, the restart is mandatory for the plugin to be loaded.

Answer 4

As suggested by malenkiy_scot, we can create a job and use the Jenkins CLI. Here is the secret way I do for my automation in installing plugins. Jenkins plugins are available in the Jenkins mirror here: http://updates.jenkins-ci.org/latest This link might not list anything but you can download the plugin if you know the name of the plugin. For example, if you want to download the skype-notifier plugin, you can download it from http://updates.jenkins-ci.org/latest/skype-notifier.hpi The generic URL is "http://updates.jenkins-ci.org/latest/.hpi"
After downloading that plugin, it should go to the "plugins" directory in Jenkins home on the server. For linux machine, it will most likely be in "/var/lib/jenkins/plugins". Simple example
wget http://updates.jenkins-ci.org/latest/skype-notifier.hpi
mv skype-notifier.hpi /var/lib/jenkins/plugins
There are two things to note here:
If the plugin has any dependencies, those will not be installed by default. If you know what other plugins are required, those can be installed the same way. A bit of manual process is required here. But if a same set of plugins are required, the dependency can be resolved just once and script can be written to download and move them to the Jenkins home.
Downloaded plugins cannot be used right away. A reload of Jenkins is required.

Answer 5

After a lot of blood sweat and tears my suggested solution is:
Download the hpi files (plugin and dependencies) using plugin-installation-manager-tool
(requires java) or install-plugins.sh (requires bash only, but is officially deprecated, though still working 09/2021)
Note: Both are also contained in official docker image (see also Offline Installations)
Then install all downloaded files via
curl -i -F file=#plugin.hpi http://${JENKINS_URL}/pluginManager/uploadPlugin
Why?
POSTing to /pluginManager/installNecessaryPlugins always installs latest version (known bug or feature?) and seems to only install the requested plugin without proper dependency handling.
Simple example
Requires install-plugins.sh and its dependency jenkins-support from jenkinsci/docker.
You have do adapt install-plugins.sh line 27 to point to your jenkins-support file, e.g.
. jenkins-support if you have everything in one folder and execute it from there.
pluginFolder=$(mktemp -d)
# Download plugins
JENKINS_UC=https://updates.jenkins.io REF="${pluginFolder}" \
install-plugins.sh \
docker-workflow:1.26 docker-plugin:1.2.2
# add more plugins in here, pass a bash array or load from file
# (see Real-life example bellow)
# Install all downloaded plugin files via HTTP
for pluginFile in "${pluginFolder}/plugins"/*; do
curl -i -F "file=#${pluginFile}" http://${JENKINS_URL}/pluginManager/uploadPlugin
done
Real-life example
Taken from cloudogu/gitops-playground.
download-plugins.sh - loads all plugins declared in plugins.txt using install-plugins.sh to a directory passed as parameter.
init-jenkins.sh calls download-plugins.sh, then installs the plugins using jenkins-REST-client.sh

Answer 6

I do not think this is possible. However, as a workaround you may consider creating a job that would install plugins via Jenkins CLI; you then can invoke that job via the API with appropriate parameters.