Archiving artifacts not in the workspace when build fails - ant

When an ANT build step fails in my build I'd like to archive the logs in order to determine the problem. The relevant logs, however, are not located in the workspace, so I have to use a full path to them.
The standard artifact archiving feature does not work well with full paths, so first I have to copy the logs into the workspace within some build step so that I can later archive them. I do not want to incorporate the copying code into the original ANT script (it does not really belong there). On the other hand, since the build step fails the build I can't execute the code that copies the artifacts into the workspace as a separate build step as it is never reached.
I am considering using ANT -keep-going option, but how will I then fail the build?
Any other ideas (artifact plugins that handle full paths gracefully, for example)?
Update: I've worked around the problem by creating a symbolic link in the workspace to the directory that contains the files to be archived. Kludgy, but effective.

I would recommend using Flexible Publish plugin in conjunction with the Conditional Build Step plugin.
The Flexible Publish plugin allows you to schedule build steps AFTER the build steps have normally run. This allows you to catch both successful and failed builds and execute something - say a script that copies the files from OUTSIDE the workspace to INSIDE the workspace. The Conditional BuildSet plugin allows conditionalizing the steps so that they only run when the build fails. Using these two plugins, you can copy the files into the workspace upon failure, then archive them with the usual Jenkins mechanisms.

Related

How to delete a build from Jenkins job workspace

I wonder if it is possible to remove only one build (including artifacts) from job workspace.
I tried to "Delete Build" in Build History but all it does is remove build reference from Build History table. I know I can ssh to a server and delete files from the command line but I am looking for a way to do it from Jenkins web interface.
After installing Workspace Cleanup Plugin I am able to wipe out current workspace but I want to keep my other builds in the workspace.
In your Jenkins instance, to be able to have folder/per build - set flag "Use custom workspace" in your job's settings. Here is a brief help info from the setting description:
For each job on Jenkins, Jenkins allocates a unique "workspace directory."
This is the directory where the code is checked out and builds happen.
Normally you should let Jenkins allocate and clean up workspace directories,
but in several situations this is problematic, and in such case, this option
lets you specify the workspace location manually.
One such situation is where paths are hard-coded and the code needs to be
built on a specific location. While there's no doubt that such a build is
not ideal, this option allows you to get going in such a situation.
...
And your custom directory path would look like this:
workspace\$JOB_NAME\$BUILD_NUMBER ~> workspace\my-job-name\123
where $JOB_NAME will be "my-job-name" and $BUILD_NUMBER is the build number, eq. "123".
There is one nasty problem with this approach and this is why I wouldn't recommend to use it - Jenkins will not be able to reclaim disk space for outdated builds. You would have to handle cleanup of outdated builds manually and it is a lot of hassle.
Alternative approach, that gives you more control, tools and is able to keep disk space usage under control (without your supervision) is to use default workspace settings and archive your build output (files, original source code, libraries and etc.) as a post-build action. Very-very handy and gives you access to a whole bunch of great tools like, Copy Artifact Plugin or ArtifactDeployer Plugin in other jobs.
Hope that info helps you make a decision that fits your needs best.
I also use "General/Advanced/Use custom workspace" (as in #pabloduo's answer) on a Windows machine with something like:
C:\${JOB_NAME}\${BUILD_NUMBER}
Just wanted to add a solution for getting rid of the build job's workspaces.
I use Groovy Events Listener Plugin for this.
Using the plug-in's standard configuration I just use the following Groovy script:
if (event == Event.JOB_DELETED){
new File(env.WORKSPACE).deleteDir()
}
And now the custom workspace is deleted when the build job is deleted.
Just be aware that this would also delete non-custom workspaces (because the event is triggered for all jobs on your Jenkins server).

Download full workspace from Jenkins build

I am new to jenkins and I have tried downloading a zip archive of this workspace in jenkins, but I only get a part of it. Source folders like tensorflow or tools are not present inside the archive. Is this normal ?
If so, how do I get all of them inside a zip file ?
Use Archive Artifact plugin, to add your workspace into archive folder which will make it easily down-loadable.
But be aware that, an artifact in the Jenkins sense is the result of a build - the intended output of the build process.
A common convention is to put the result of a build into a build, target or bin directory.
The Jenkins archiver can use globs (target/*.jar) to easily pick up the right file even if you have a unique name per build.
putting a complete workspace into it will take lot of time.

Creating artifacts in jenkins

I have been tasked with looking into using Jenkins as a build server. So far I have managed to pull a project from git, restore the Nuget packages, build the project and run the unit tests. However I am struggling to find out how to generate the artifact.
The way the business would like to have the build server generate a zip file to a directory on the build server or a remote server for the systems team then to pick up and deploy to the relevant location. E.g. given a windows service project the built bin directory would be zipped up and put in the relevant artifact directory.
I thought that in order to do this I add an archive the artifacts post-build action. However I am getting the below error:
‘Watchdog.WinService.Monitor/bin/Release/*.zip’ doesn’t match anything:
‘Watchdog.WinService.Monitor’ exists but not
‘Watchdog.WinService.Monitor/bin/Release/*.zip’
If I look in the workspace for this project I can browse to the bin directory and see all the files so I unsure what I have done wrong.
Can someone please let me know if what I am trying to accomplish is possible, and also if our approach to using Jenkins is correct?
The problem is that you try to create the artifact using the archive artifatcs step.
But the step is to collect artifacts and show them on the job page.
That means you need to create the artifact first e.g. using a shell or batch script.
You can combine this with the Flexible Publish Plugin.
When you select this as post build step you can create a conditional action that runs the artifact archive task and as condition executes the script that creates the zip file.
So if that fails the task won't be executed. Also it may causes your job to 'fail' but that may not be the case in your job.

Hudson/Jenkins PMD Configuration

I am new to Jenkins and just started configuring it. This is what i have done till now:
Installed and configured Jenkins to display the home page. Added PMD plugin.
Set the HUDSON_HOME to a specific directory > C:\Work\Jenkins
Configured a test build to run a simple do-nothing ant script. It runs successfully
Written an independent pmdbuild.xml to run checks on a set of files in C:\myview (I am using clearcase). This xml also copies the output pmd_results.xml to the workspace directory in $HUDSON_HOME/[job-name]/workspace
Now I added the pmdbuild.xml as a step in my primary build. So my build has 2 steps:
a. Run a simple script, do-nothing.
b. Run pmdbuild.xml which generate pmd_results.xml and place it in $HUDSON_HOME/[job-name]/workspace (HARD-CODED as Jenkins PMD plugin expects the file there)
Jenkins picks up the pmd_results.xml automatically with the plugin and displays warnings and everything.
Now the problem:
If I click on a filename in the PMD results, it gives a filenotfound exception as it is looking for the source file in $HUDSON_HOME/[job-name]/workspace.
My java code files are placed in C:\myview (a clearcase snapshot view)
My question is, do I need all my code files to be present inside $HUDSON_HOME/[job-name]/workspace ?? Meaning can't I tell Jenkins to look for the PMD input files in C:\myview or any other directory instead of $HUDSON_HOME/[job-name]/workspace ??
Sorry for the extremely long description.
Jenkins expects that all the code is in the workspace. Usually Jenkins is used to check out a copy of the code into the workspace, and then runs all build steps on the Sources in the Workspace.
Might seem restraining at first, but it saves you a lot of trouble if you need to move Jenkins to another server, or create a slave instance.
So I would suggest you let Jenkins check out your code (there should be a clearcase plugin) into the workspace, and run the analysis on the checked out code.
If there are compelling reasons why your code has to stay where it is (C:\myview in your case) you can still set the workspace of your build to that directory (find this in the job configuration page, you need to click on the 'extended' button to see the option).

teamcity ant multuple project build

I hope you guys can help me.
my problem is the following:
i have 2 projects that depend on each other each of them in different svn root.
what i do toady is build the first , take its artifact and copy it manually to where ever i want in second project and than run the second build.
i want to be able to run 1 build it can be either with a new ant build.xml file who will run the first build , copy its product to where ever i want it and than will run the second build.
second option run those 2 project with dependency in teamcity. i'm not sure how to do so and how to pass the first project artifact to be placed in the right folder i need it in the second project.
maybe someone know's how to do that.
thanks.
TeamCity's Artifact Dependencies seems to be the best option.
Suppose you have ProjectA and ProjectB:
Configure TeamCity to publish files from ProjectA:
Open General Settings configuration step of ProjectA.
Fill in Artifact paths field with relative paths to published files. TeamCity will collect these files after build finishes.
Build ProjectA to make sure artifacts are collected properly. Artifacts must become available on build results page (see Artifacts tab).
See documentation for artifacts for more details
Configure Artifact dependency for ProjectB:
Open Dependencies configuration step of ProjectB, add new artifact dependency
Depend on - select ProjectA
Get artifacts from: - use whatever you need. Possibly, last successful build.
Artifacts - enter artifacts paths from ProjectA. You can use popup to choose artifacts with UI.
Destination path - enter destination path, where artifacts will be copied to. Path is relative to checkout directory
See documentation for artifact dependencies for more details
Now each time you start build for ProjectB, it will download artifacts from last successful build of ProjectA. If you want these builds to start simultaneously, add Snapshot dependency (on ProjectA) to ProjectB. With snapshot dependency, each time you start ProjectB, it will first trigger ProjectA, wait for ProjectA build to finish and (if has artifact dependency on "last successful build" of ProjectA) download fresh artifacts.

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