How can I test a change made to Jenkinsfile locally

Question

When writing jenkins pipelines it seems to be very inconvenient to commit each new change in order to see if it works    Is there a way to execute these locally without committing the code

User · Answer

For simplicity  you can create a Jenkinsfile at the root of the git repository  similar to the below example  Jenkinsfile  based on the groovy syntax of the declarative pipeline   pipeline        agent any      stages           stage  Build the Project                 steps                   git  https   github com jaikrgupta CarthageAPI-1 0 git                  echo pwd                   sh  ls -alrt                  sh  pip install -r requirements txt                  sh  python app py  amp                   echo  quot Build stage gets finished here quot                                  stage  Test                 steps                   sh  chmod 777   scripts test-script sh                  sh    scripts test-script sh                  sh  cat   test-reports test script log                  echo  quot Test stage gets finished here quot                             https   github com jaikrgupta CarthageAPI-1 0 git  You can now set up a new item in Jenkins as a Pipeline job  Select the Definition as Pipeline script from SCM and Git for the SCM option  Paste the project s git repo link in the Repository URL and Jenkinsfile in the script name box  Then click on the lightweight checkout option and save the project  So whenever you pushed a commit to the git repo  you can always test the changes running the Build Now every time in Jenkins   Please follow the instructions in the below visuals for easy setup a Jenkins Pipeline s job

User · Answer

With some limitations and for scripted pipelines I use this solution    Pipeline job with an inlined groovy script      node  master         stage  Run                      def script   load     you job file                   Jenkinsfile for testing have same structure as for lesfurets      def execute          main job code here       execute

User · Answer

Jenkins has a  Replay  feature  which enables you to quickly replay a job without updating sources

User · Answer

I have a solution that works well for me  It consists of a local jenkins running in docker and a git web hook to trigger the pipeline in the local jenkins on every commit  You no longer need to push to your github or bitbucket repository to test the pipeline    This has only been tested in a linux environment   It is fairly simple to make this work although this instruction is a tad long  Most steps are there   This is what you need   Docker installed and working  This is not part of this instruction  A Jenkins running in docker locally  Explained how below    The proper rights  ssh access key  for your local Jenkins docker user to pull from your local git repo   Explained how below  A Jenkins pipeline project that pulls from your local git repository  Explained below  A git user in your local Jenkins with minimal rights  Explained below   A git project with a post-commit web hook that triggers the pipeline project  Explained below    This is how you do it  Jenkins Docker  Create a file called Dockerfile in place of your choosing  I m placing it in  opt docker jenkins Dockerfile fill it with this   FROM jenkins jenkins lts USER root RUN apt-get -y update  amp  amp  apt-get -y upgrade   Your needed installations goes here USER jenkins   Build the local jenkins image  This you will need to do only once or after you have added something to the Dockerfile     docker build -t local jenkins  opt docker jenkins    Start and restart local jenkins  From time to time you want to start and restart jenkins easily  E g  after a reboot of your machine  For this I made an alias that I put in  bash aliases in my home folder     echo  alias localjenkinsrestart  docker stop jenkins docker rm jenkins docker run --name jenkins -i -d -p 8787 8080 -p 50000 50000 -v  opt docker jenkins jenkins home  var jenkins home rw local jenkins    gt  gt     bash aliases   source  bash aliases    To make it work   Make sure the  opt docker jenkins jenkins home folder exists and that you have user read and write rights to it   To start or restart your jenkins just type     localjenkinsrestart   Everything you do in your local jenkins will be stored in the folder  opt docker jenkins jenkins home and preserved between restarts   Create a ssh access key in your docker jenkins  This is a very important part for this to work  First we start the docker container and create a bash shell to it     localjenkinsrestart   docker exec -it jenkins  bin bash   You have now entered into the docker container  this you can see by something like jenkins e7b23bad10aa    in your terminal  The hash after the   will for sure differ   Create the key  jenkins e7b23bad10aa    ssh-keygen   Press enter on all questions until you get the prompt back  Copy the key to your computer  From within the docker container your computer is 172 17 0 1 should you wonder   jenkins e7b23bad10aa    ssh-copy-id user 172 17 0 1   user   your username and 172 17 0 1 is the ip address to your computer from within the docker container   You will have to type your password at this point   Now lets try to complete the loop by ssh-ing to your computer from within the docker container   jenkins e7b23bad10aa    ssh user 172 17 0 1   This time you should not need to enter you password  If you do  something went wrong and you have to try again   You will now be in your computers home folder  Try ls and have a look   Do not stop here since we have a chain of ssh shells that we need to get out of     exit jenkins e7b23bad10aa    exit   Right  Now we are back and ready to continue   Install your Jenkins  You will find your local Jenkins in your browser at http   localhost 8787   First time you point your browser to your local Jenkins your will be greated with a Installation Wizard   Defaults are fine  do make sure you install the pipeline plugin during the setup though    Setup your jenkins  It is very important that you activate matrix based security on http   localhost 8787 configureSecurity and give yourself all rights by adding yourself to the matrix and tick all the boxes   There is a tick-all-boxes icon on the far right    Select Jenkins    own user database as the Security Realm Select Matrix-based security in the Authorization section Write your username in the field User group to add  and click on the   Add   button In the table above your username should pop up with a people icon next to it  If it is crossed over you typed your username incorrectly  Go to the far right of the table and click on the tick-all-button or manually tick all the boxes in your row  Please verify that the checkbox Prevent Cross Site Request Forgery exploits is unchecked   Since this Jenkins is only reachable from your computer this isn t such a big deal  Click on   Save   and log out of Jenkins and in again just to make sure it works   If it doesn t you have to start over from the beginning and emptying the  opt docker jenkins jenkins home folder before restarting   Add the git user  We need to allow our git hook to login to our local Jenkins with minimal rights  Just to see and build jobs is sufficient  Therefore we create a user called git with password login    Direct your browser to http   localhost 8787 securityRealm addUser and add git as username and login as password   Click on   Create User     Add the rights to the git user  Go to the http   localhost 8787 configureSecurity page in your browser  Add the git user to the matrix    Write git in the field User group to add  and click on   Add     Now it is time to check the boxes for minimal rights to the git user  Only these are needed     overall read job build job discover job read   Make sure that the Prevent Cross Site Request Forgery exploits checkbox is unchecked and click on   Save    Create the pipeline project  We assume we have the username user and our git enabled project with the Jenkinsfile in it is called project and is located at  home user projects project  In your http   localhost 8787 Jenkins add a new pipeline project  I named it hookpipeline for reference    Click on New Item in the Jenkins menu Name the project hookpipeline Click on Pipeline Click   OK   Tick the checkbox Poll SCM in the Build Triggers section  Leave the Schedule empty  In the Pipeline section    select Pipeline script from SCM in the Repository URL field enter user 172 17 0 1 projects project  git in the Script Path field enter Jenkinsfile  Save the hookpipeline project Build the hookpipeline manually once  this is needed for the Poll SCM to start working    Create the git hook  Go to the  home user projects project  git hooks folder and create a file called post-commit that contains this      bin sh BRANCHNAME   git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD  MASTERBRANCH  master   curl -XPOST -u git login http   localhost 8787 job hookpipeline build echo  Build triggered successfully on branch   BRANCHNAME    Make this file executable     chmod  x  home user projects project  git hooks post-commit   Test the post-commit hook      home user projects project  git hooks post-commit   Check in Jenkins if your hookpipeline project was triggered   Finally make some arbitrary change to your project  add the changes and do a commit  This will now trigger the pipeline in your local Jenkins   Happy Days

User · Answer

You can just validate your pipeline to find out syntax issues  Jenkis has nice API for Jenkisfile validation - https   jenkins url pipeline-model-converter validate Using curl and passing your  Jenkinsfile  you will get syntax check instantly curl --user username password -X POST -F  quot jenkinsfile  lt jenkinsfile quot  https   jenkins url pipeline-model-converter validate  You can add this workflow to editors   VS Code Sublime Text

User · Answer

In my development setup     missing a proper Groovy editor      a great deal of Jenkinsfile issues originates from simple syntax errors  To tackle this issue  you can validate the Jenkinsfile against your Jenkins instance  running at  JENKINS HTTP URL    curl -X POST -H   curl   JENKINS HTTP URL crumbIssuer api xml xpath concat   crumbRequestField       crumb    -F  jenkinsfile  lt Jenkinsfile   JENKINS HTTP URL pipeline-model-converter validate  The above command is a slightly modified version from  https   github com jenkinsci pipeline-model-definition-plugin wiki Validating- or-linting -a-Declarative-Jenkinsfile-from-the-command-line

User · Answer

A bit late to the party  but that s why I wrote jenny  a small reimplementation of some core Jenkinsfile steps   https   github com bmustiata jenny

User · Answer

At the moment of writing  end of July 2017  with the Blue Ocean plugin you can check the syntax of a declarative pipeline directly in the visual pipeline editor  The editor  works from the Blue Ocean UI when you click  configure  only for github projects  this is a known issue and they are working to make it work also on git etc    But  as explained in this question you can open the editor browsing to    Jenkins URL  blue organizations jenkins pipeline-editor   Then click in the middle of the page  and press Ctrl S  this will open a textarea where you can paste a pipeline declarative script  When you click on Update  if there is a syntax error  the editor will let you know where the syntax error is  Like in this screenshot     If there is no syntax error  the textarea will close and the page will visualize your pipeline  Don t worry it won t save anything  if it s a github project it would commit the Jenkinsfile change    I m new to Jenkins and this is quite helpful  without this I had to commit a Jenkinsfile many times  till it works  very annoying    Hope this helps  Cheers

User · Answer

Put your SSH key into your Jenkins profile  then use the declarative linter as follows   ssh jenkins hostname here declarative-linter  lt  Jenkinsfile   This will do a static analysis on your Jenkinsfile  In the editor of your choice  define a keyboard shortcut that runs that command automatically  In Visual Studio Code  which is what I use  go to Tasks   Configure Tasks  then use the following JSON to create a Validate Jenkinsfile command        version    2 0 0      tasks                  label    Validate Jenkinsfile          type    shell          command    ssh jenkins hostname declarative-linter  lt    file

User · Answer

TL DR     Jenkins Pipeline Unit testing framework   Jenkinsfile Runner   Long Version Jenkins Pipeline testing becomes more and more of a pain  Unlike the classic declarative job configuration approach where the user was limited to what the UI exposed the new Jenkins Pipeline is a full fledged programming language for the build process where you mix the declarative part with your own code  As good developers we want to have some unit tests for this kind of code as well     There are three steps you should follow when developing Jenkins Pipelines  The step 1  should cover 80  of the uses cases    Do as much as possible in build scripts  eg  Maven  Gradle  Gulp etc    Then in your pipeline scripts just calls the build tasks in the right order  The build pipeline just orchestrates and executes the build tasks but does not have any major logic that needs a special testing     If the previous rule can t be fully applied then move over to Pipeline Shared libraries where you can develop and test custom logic on its own and integrate them into the pipeline  If all of the above fails you  you can try one of those libraries that came up recently  March-2017   Jenkins Pipeline Unit testing framework or pipelineUnit  examples   Since 2018 there is also Jenkinsfile Runner  a  package to execution Jenkins pipelines from a command line tool    Examples   The pipelineUnit GitHub repo contains some Spock examples on how to use Jenkins Pipeline Unit testing framework

User · Answer

As far as i know this Pipeline Plugin is the  Engine  of the new Jenkinsfile mechanics  so im quite positive you could use this to locally test your scripts   Im not sure if there is any additional steps needed when you copy it into a Jenkinsfile  however the syntax etc should be exactly the same   Edit  Found the reference on the  engine   check this feature description  last paragraph  first entry

User · Answer

Aside from the Replay feature that others already mentioned  ditto on its usefulness    I found the following to be useful as well    Create a test Pipeline job where you can type in Pipeline code or point to your repo branch of a Jenkinsfile to quickly test out something  For more accurate testing  use a Multibranch Pipeline that points to your own fork where you can quickly make changes and commit without affecting prod  Stuff like BRANCH NAME env is only available in Multibranch  Since Jenkinsfile is Groovy code  simply invoke it with  groovy Jenkinsfile  to validate basic syntax

User · Answer

i am using replay future   to do some update and run quickly

User · Answer

You cannot execute Pipeline script locally  since its whole purpose is to script Jenkins   Which is one reason why it is best to keep your Jenkinsfile short and limited to code which actually deals with Jenkins features  your actual build logic should be handled with external processes or build tools which you invoke via a one-line sh or bat step    If you want to test a change to Jenkinsfile live but without committing it  use the Replay feature added in 1 14  JENKINS-33925 tracks the desired for an automated test framework

[jenkins] How can I test a change made to Jenkinsfile locally?

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