Azure Pipelines: How to make a task dependent on a previous task?

Question

I'm using Azure-Pipelines for my CI integration on windows-2019. Here's a scenario, the task #'s mean order in which they occur (1 being first).

In task 2, I am running tests. In task 3, I want to generate a report on these tests, regardless if the tests succeeded or failed (thus adding - condition: succeededOrFailed() to task 3).

However, in task 1, I am building the repo. If the build fails, I don't want any subsequent tasks to run. But since task 3 has condition: succeededOrFailed(), it still runs and produces another error. My goal is to have task 3 run regardless if task 2 fails or succeeds, but not if task 1 fails.

I'm not sure the best way to handle this. Is it possible to make task 3 dependent on task 2? Or can I stop the whole pipeline immediately if task 1 fails?

Also, for task 1, I tried continueOnError: false because I thought it would stop the pipeline there, but it didn't do what I thought. Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

My goal is to have task 3 run regardless if task 2 fails or succeeds, but not if task 1 fails.

From your requirement, you can connect task 3 and task 1.

Here is the Yaml template:

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: task1
...


- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      # Write your PowerShell commands here.

      Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=task.A.status]Success"      
  condition: succeeded()

- task: task2
 ...
  condition: succeeded()

- task: task 3
....
  condition: and (succeededOrFailed(), eq(variables['task.A.status'], 'success'))

Explaination：

The Powershell task is used to set an output variable for task 1. When task 1 success, the variable will set the value success. This variable could be used in the following tasks.

The condition in task 2 depends on task 1.

The condition in task 3 needs to meet two conditions at the same time. (1. no matter success or fail , 2. The custom variable value is success).

Then the task 3 will run only when the task 1 success. And task 3 will run regardless if task 2 fails or succeeds.

Hope this helps.