Preserve Jenkins workspace

Question

I have Jenkins set up to run concurrent builds, so I end up with workspace, workspace@2, workspace@3, etc. If Jenkins thinks the build is finished, a new build will overwrite the workspace. Is there a way of occasionally preventing that? E.g. Don't overwrite workspace@3 until I say. We have various scenarios where this would be very useful.

Answer 1

You could simply archive the complete workspace at the end of a build. It would then get deleted when the job is deleted.

To do this:

• Add post-build action -> "Archive the artifacts"
• Enter ** as "Files to archive"

If you want to make that configurable per run, you could create a build parameter:

• (enable "This is a parametrized build" if not yet enabled)
• add parameter of type "Choice Parameter" and name it ARCHIVE
• with choices being <blank line> and ** (literally, put a blank first line, then second line is exactly **. No quotes)
• use ${ARCHIVE} as "Files to archive" in "Advanced" setting of "Archive the Artifacts" action
• enable checkbox "Do not fail build if archiving returns nothing"

Answer 2

You can define the agent in the hole pipeline, so the jenkins will use only the "workspace" dir.

For example (this is a NOT WORKING example):

pipeline {
    agent any 
    environment {
        // Environment variables
    }    
    stages {
        stage('Clear dir') {
            steps {
                deleteDir()
            }
        }
        stage('Make checkout') {
            agent any    // **THIS IS WRONG!!!!** 
            steps {
                echo 'Making checkout'
            }
        }
    } 
}

In the previous example, the "agent any" inside the stage will allow jenkins to create a "workspace@2" folder.

To prevent this, leave the agent only in the pipeline. Correct example:

pipeline {
    agent any   // This is right! leave only this mention of agent 
    environment {
        // Environment variables
    }    
    stages {
        stage('Clear dir') {
            steps {
                deleteDir()
            }
        }
        stage('Make checkout') {
            steps {
                echo 'Making checkout'
            }
        }
    } 
}