Schedule Jenkins job using Jenkins Rest API

Question

I have a Jenkins job which is scheduled for a specific time. I want to modify that timing programmatically.

I tried to modify the build by installing Schedule Build plugin and modify it using http://jenkins_url/job/jobname/build?delay=3344sec. But this will put the job in quiet period which holds the java thread. I'm looking to modify the Schedule entry without putting it to quiet period.

Answer 1

You can use the Build Triggers -> Build periodically job configuration option. Use that to specify the exact time for starting a new build.

If you need to change that time, use the Jenkins REST API to...

1. programmatically retrieve the job configuration in XML format, then
2. modify the scheduling time in that configuration (see below)
3. re-post the new job configuration

In bash, this can be done with a one-liner (using curl and sed) to modify the XML section below (the example schedules a run for noon, Feb 29):

[...]
<triggers>
<hudson.triggers.TimerTrigger>
<spec>00 12 29 02 * </spec>
</hudson.triggers.TimerTrigger>
</triggers>
[...]

Note:

• as a plus you wouldn't depend on any supplementary plugins
• caveat: you cannot specify a year in the schedule -- so if you need to schedule builds more than one year in advance then you need some magic on top.