How to set and reference a variable in a Jenkinsfile

Question

I have a declarative pipeline script for my multibranch project in which I would like to read a text file and store the result as a string variable to be accessed by a later step in the pipeline  Using the snippet generator I tried to do something like this   filename   readFile  output txt    For which filename would be my string   I get an error in the Jenkins console output   org codehaus groovy control MultipleCompilationErrorsException  startup failed  WorkflowScript  30  Expected a step   line 30  column 5              filename   readFile  output txt    Do I need to use a withEnv step to set the output of readFile to a Jenkins environment variable  If so  how   Thanks

User · Answer

We got around this by adding functions to the environment step  i e    environment       ENVIRONMENT NAME   defineEnvironment          def defineEnvironment         def branchName      env BRANCH NAME       if  branchName     master             return  staging            else           return  test

User · Answer

A complete example for scripted pipepline          stage  Build                withEnv   GOPATH  ws   PATH  ws bin   env PATH                       sh  bash build sh

User · Answer

The error is due to that you re only allowed to use pipeline steps inside the steps directive  One workaround that I know is to use the script step and wrap arbitrary pipeline script inside of it and save the result in the environment variable so that it can be used later   So in your case   pipeline       agent any     stages           stage  foo                 steps                   script                       env FILENAME   readFile  output txt                                    echo    env FILENAME

User · Answer

I can  t comment yet but  just a hint  use try catch clauses to avoid breaking the pipeline  if you are sure the file exists  disregard      pipeline           agent any             stages                   stage  quot foo quot                         steps                           script                               try                                                       env FILENAME   readFile  output txt                                  echo  quot   env FILENAME  quot                                                            catch Exception e                                      do something  e g  echo  File not found                                                                                      Another hint  this was commented by  hao  and  think is worth to share   you may want to trim like this readFile  output txt   trim

User · Answer

According to the documentation  you can also set global environment variables if you later want to use the value of the variable in other parts of your script  In your case  it would be setting it in the root pipeline   pipeline           environment       FILENAME   readFile

[jenkins] How to set and reference a variable in a Jenkinsfile

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