Jenkins + Build Flow, how to pass a variable from one job to another

Question

I have a build flow scenario similar to the documentation example: two jobs, one running after the other.

b = build("job1")
build("job2", param1: b.????)

My job1 is a shell script that builds a package out of a checked out git repositoy and prints out the version of the built package.

I need to extract the version from job1 (parse output??) and make it available somehow as a parameter to job2. How can this be achieved? Please note that I can't know the version before running job1.

Answer 1

The problem with simply using export in a shell script build step is that the exported variables disappear when the shell script exits, they are not propagated up to the job.

Use the EnvInject plugin to create environment variables in your build. If you write out a properties file as part of your build, EnvInject can read the file and inject variables as a build step. A properties file has a simple KEY=VALUE format:

MY_BUILD_VERSION=some_parsed_value

Once you have an environment variable set in your job, in the Build Flow plugin, you can extract the variable's value and use it in subsequent jobs:

def version = build.environment.get( "MY_BUILD_VERSION" )
out.println String.format("Parameters: version: %s", version)
build( "My Second Build", MY_BUILD_VERSION: version )