Referencing release variables in azurepipelines.yml - azure

Question

Currently i am in the process of converting my pipelines from classic over to azurepipelines.yml and im having an issue trying to find the correct syntax to reference release variables in a bash step.
The existing code in a bash task
namebuilder=$(RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME)-$(RELEASE.RELEASEID)
will output the following
dev-2049
however when converted over to my new pipeline file the above code produces the the following error
/home/vsts/work/_temp/ac39e1d7-11bd-4c32-9b1b-1520dae11c5a.sh: line 1: RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME: command not found
/home/vsts/work/_temp/ac39e1d7-11bd-4c32-9b1b-1520dae11c5a.sh: line 1: RELEASE.RELEASEID: command not found
[extracted from pipeline.yml]
- bash: |
namebuilder=$(RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME)-$(RELEASE.RELEASEID)
i have even created a step trying a few different approaches without much luck
steps:
- bash: |
echo This multiline script always runs in Bash.
echo Even on Windows machines!
echo '$(release.environmentname)'
echo $(release.environmentname)
echo '$(RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME)'
echo $(RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME)
produces
This multiline script always runs in Bash.
Even on Windows machines!
$(release.environmentname)
$(RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME)
/home/vsts/work/_temp/260dd504-a42d-45d6-bb1b-bf1f4b015cf8.sh: line 4: release.environmentname: command not found
/home/vsts/work/_temp/260dd504-a42d-45d6-bb1b-bf1f4b015cf8.sh: line 6: RELEASE.ENVIRONMENTNAME: command not found
is it also possible (in a much cleaner approach) to define this as a pipeline variable and reference at a global scope like below ?
variables:
namebuilder: '$(release.environmentname)-$(release.releaseid)'
stages:
- stage: Deploy
displayName: deploy infra
jobs:
- job: deploy_infra
displayName: deploy infra
continueOnError: true
workspace:
clean: outputs
steps:
- bash: |
echo This multiline script always runs in Bash.
echo Even on Windows machines!
echo '$(namebuilder)'
tia

Answer 1

It doesn't look like release.environment or any release variables are available for multi-stage pipelines. You could use the new environment concept and at that point environment.name would be available. I think you would likely go with $(environment.name)-$(build.buildid) for what you are after.
So I am not sure if the release pipelines you are converting are deploying to say an app service, or to a VM, or just using a hosted agent to publish something else? Disclaimer I have not used the Environment concept extensively yet just some reading and limited testing. Its all new!
So for deploying to VMs You can configure a Virtual Machine resource in an environment. This concept has a bunch of parallels with classic deployment group agents. You register an agent on a target machine. From there your pipeline steps can execute in that machine's context and you get a further set of environment variables.
The example pipeline below outputs any environment variables from the context the steps are running in and also outputs $(environment.name)-$(build.buildid)
A normal job in a hosted pipeline
A Deployment to an Environment
A Deployment to an Environment with a VM resource
trigger:
- master
pool:
vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
variables:
namebuilder: '$(environment.name)-$(build.buildid)'
jobs:
- job: NormalJobInHostedPipeline
steps:
- task: PowerShell#2
name: EnvironmentVariables
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: 'gci env:* | sort-object name'
- bash: |
echo This multiline script always runs in Bash.
echo Even on Windows machines!
echo '$(namebuilder)'
# track deployments on the environment
- deployment: DeploymentHostedContext
displayName: Runs in Hosted Pool
pool:
vmImage: 'Ubuntu-16.04'
# auto creates an environment if it doesn't exist
environment: 'Dev'
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- task: PowerShell#2
name: EnvironmentVariables
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: 'gci env:* | sort-object name'
- bash: |
echo This multiline script always runs in Bash.
echo Even on Windows machines!
echo '$(namebuilder)'
# Similar to Deployment Group Agent need to register them -stage will fail if resource does not exist
# https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/environments-virtual-machines?view=azure-devops
- deployment: DeploymentVirtualMachineContext
displayName: Run On Virtual Machine Agent
environment:
name: DevVM
resourceType: VirtualMachine
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- task: PowerShell#2
name: EnvironmentVariables
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: 'gci env:* | sort-object name'
- task: PowerShell#2
name: VariableName
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: 'echo $(namebuilder)'

Answer 2

Use $(System.StageName) in place of $(Release.EnvironmentName), as for release Id, you'd need to use $(Build.BuildId)
I found that $(Environment.Name) doesn't work unless you're using environments. I'm not since it's still quite limited.