Post failure block in Jenkinsfile is not working

Question

I'm trying a post failure action with a parallel step but it never works.

This is my Jenkinsfile:

pipeline {
  agent any
  stages {
    stage("test") {
      steps {
        withMaven(
          maven: 'maven3', // Maven installation declared in the Jenkins "Global Tool Configuration"
          mavenSettingsConfig: 'maven_id', // Maven settings.xml file defined with the Jenkins Config File Provider Plugin
          mavenLocalRepo: '.repository')
        {
          // Run the maven build
          sh "mvn --batch-mode release:prepare -Dmaven.deploy.skip=true" --> it will always fail
        }
      }
    }
    stage("testing") {
      steps {
        parallel (
          phase1: { sh 'echo phase1' },
          phase2: { sh "echo phase2" }
        )
      }
    }
  }
  post {
    failure {
      echo "FAIL"
    }
  }
}

But the post failure action here is a bit useles... I don´t see it any place.

Thanks to all! Regards

Answer 1

I've found the issue, after several hours of searching. What you are missing (and I was missing too) is the catchError section.

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Compile') {
           steps {
                catchError {
                    sh './gradlew compileJava --stacktrace'
                }
            }
            post {
                success {
                    echo 'Compile stage successful'
                }
                failure {
                    echo 'Compile stage failed'
                }
            }
        }
        /* ... other stages ... */
    }
    post {
        success {
            echo 'whole pipeline successful'
        }
        failure {
            echo 'pipeline failed, at least one step failed'
        }
    }

You should wrap every step that can potentially fail into a catchError function. What this does is:

• If an error occurs...
• ... set build.result to FAILURE...
• ... and continue the build

The last point is important: your post{ } blocks did not get called because your entire pipeline was aborted before they even had a chance to execute.

Answer 2

Just in case someone else also made the same stupid mistake I did, don't forget the post block needs to be inside the pipeline block.

i.e. This is apparently valid, but (obviously) won't work:

pipeline {
  agent { ... }
  stages { ... }
}
// WRONG!
post {
  always { ... }
}

This is what's correct:

pipeline {
  agent { ... }
  stages { ... }
  post {
    always { ... }
  }
}