Set VSTS output variable to be result from bash command

Question

I'm running a task in VSTS which performs some operations on a variable from a previous step and I then need to output the result to be used in future tasks. I have the following in a command line task running on a linux build host but am having no luck when trying to use the result later with $(podName3).

COMMAND="$(echo '$(pods)' | grep -oh -P '[^ ]*' | grep schema)"
##vso[task.setvariable variable=podName3]"$COMMAND"

I have tried several variations on this to no avail and need some direction as this has stumped me for too long now

Answer 1

Seems the syntax is incorrect.

Just try to below format:

COMMAND="$(echo '$pods' | grep -oh -P '[^ ]*' | grep schema)"
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=podName3]$COMMAND"

Or add a powershell task and run below commands to set the variable:

$COMMAND="$(echo '$env:pods' | grep -oh -P '[^ ]*' | grep schema)"

Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=podName3]$COMMAND"

More information please see Define and modify your variables in a script

Answer 2

I created a command line tool & an Azure DevOps task for this: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=riezebosch.setvar

It just lets you pipe the output of a command into the tool and output it as the magic variable string. It's written in Go and cross compiled so works on all major platforms and all different shells.

Your example:

echo '$pods' | grep -oh -P '[^ ]*' | grep schema | setvar -name podName3

You only need to include the setvar task prior to this script task in order to get the tool on the agent.