Export/import jobs in Jenkins

Question

Probably use jenkins command line is another option, see https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Jenkins+CLI

• create-job: Creates a new job by reading stdin as a configuration XML file.
• get-job: Dumps the job definition XML to stdout

So you can do

java -jar jenkins-cli.jar -s http://server get-job myjob > myjob.xml
java -jar jenkins-cli.jar -s http://server create-job newmyjob < myjob.xml

It works fine for me and I am used to store in inside my version control system

Jenkins has a rather good wiki, albeit hard to read when you're new to CI software...

They offer a simple solution for moving jobs between servers

The trick probably was the need to reload config from the Jenkins Configuration Page.

Update 2020.03.10

The JenkinsCI landscape has changed a lot... I've been using Job DSL for a while now. We have a SEED Job that generates the rest of the jobs.

This helps us both recreate or move for the Jenkins server whenever needed :) You could also version those files for even more maintainability!

A one-liner:

$ curl -s http://OLD_JENKINS/job/JOBNAME/config.xml | curl -X POST 'http://NEW_JENKINS/createItem?name=JOBNAME' --header "Content-Type: application/xml" -d @-

With authentication:

$ curl -s http:///<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@OLD_JENKINS/job/JOBNAME/config.xml | curl -X POST 'http:///<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@NEW_JENKINS/createItem?name=JOBNAME' --header "Content-Type: application/xml" -d @-

With Crumb, if CSRF is active (see details here):

Get crumb with:

$ CRUMB_OLD=$(curl -s 'http://<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@OLD_JENKINS/crumbIssuer/api/xml?xpath=concat(//crumbRequestField,":",//crumb)')
$ CRUMB_NEW=$(curl -s 'http://<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@NEW_JENKINS/crumbIssuer/api/xml?xpath=concat(//crumbRequestField,":",//crumb)')

Apply crumb with -H CRUMB:

$ curl -s -H $CRUMB_OLD http:///<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@OLD_JENKINS/job/JOBNAME/config.xml | curl -X POST -H $CRUMB_NEW 'http:///<USER>:<API_TOKEN>@NEW_JENKINS/createItem?name=JOBNAME' --header "Content-Type: application/xml" -d @-

There's a plugin called Job Import Plugin that may be what you are looking for. I have used it. It does have issues with importing projects from a server that doesn't allow anonymous access.

For Completeness: If you have command line access to both, you can do the procedure already mentioned by Khez for Moving, Copying and Renaming Jenkins Jobs.

In a web browser visit:

http://[jenkinshost]/job/[jobname]/config.xml

Just save the file to your disk.

In my Jenkins instance (version 1.548) the configuration file is at:

/var/lib/jenkins/jobs/-the-project-name-/config.xml

Owned by jenkins user and jenkins group with 644 permissions. Copying the file to and from here should work. I haven't tried changing it directly but have backed-up the config from this spot in case the project needs to be setup again.

Go to your Jenkins server's front page, click on REST API at the bottom of the page:

Create Job

To create a new job, post config.xml to this URL with query parameter name=JOBNAME. You need to send a Content-Type: application/xml header. You'll get 200 status code if the creation is successful, or 4xx/5xx code if it fails. config.xml is the format Jenkins uses to store the project in the file system, so you can see examples of them in the Jenkins home directory, or by retrieving the XML configuration of existing jobs from /job/JOBNAME/config.xml.