How to set and reference a variable in a Jenkinsfile
Solution 1
The error is due to that you're only allowed to use pipeline steps inside the steps
directive. One workaround that I know is to use the script
step and wrap arbitrary pipeline script inside of it and save the result in the environment variable so that it can be used later.
So in your case:
pipeline {
agent any
stages {
stage("foo") {
steps {
script {
env.FILENAME = readFile 'output.txt'
}
echo "${env.FILENAME}"
}
}
}
}
Solution 2
According to the documentation, you can also set global environment variables if you later want to use the value of the variable in other parts of your script. In your case, it would be setting it in the root pipeline:
pipeline {
...
environment {
FILENAME = readFile ...
}
...
}
Solution 3
We got around this by adding functions to the environment
step, i.e.:
environment {
ENVIRONMENT_NAME = defineEnvironment()
}
...
def defineEnvironment() {
def branchName = "${env.BRANCH_NAME}"
if (branchName == "master") {
return 'staging'
}
else {
return 'test'
}
}
Solution 4
A complete example for scripted pipepline:
stage('Build'){
withEnv(["GOPATH=/ws","PATH=/ws/bin:${env.PATH}"]) {
sh 'bash build.sh'
}
}
Solution 5
I can' t comment yet but, just a hint: use try/catch clauses to avoid breaking the pipeline (if you are sure the file exists, disregard)
pipeline {
agent any
stages {
stage("foo") {
steps {
script {
try {
env.FILENAME = readFile 'output.txt'
echo "${env.FILENAME}"
}
catch(Exception e) {
//do something, e.g. echo 'File not found'
}
}
}
}
Another hint (this was commented by @hao, and think is worth to share): you may want to trim like this readFile('output.txt').trim()
Dalton Sweeney
Updated on October 27, 2020Comments
-
Dalton Sweeney over 3 years
I have a declarative pipeline script for my multibranch project in which I would like to read a text file and store the result as a string variable to be accessed by a later step in the pipeline. Using the snippet generator I tried to do something like this:
filename = readFile 'output.txt'
For which
filename
would be my string.I get an error in the Jenkins console output:
org.codehaus.groovy.control.MultipleCompilationErrorsException: startup failed: WorkflowScript: 30: Expected a step @ line 30, column 5. filename = readFile 'output.txt'
Do I need to use a
withEnv
step to set the output ofreadFile
to a Jenkins environment variable? If so, how?Thanks