I am trying to customize the output of my pipeline release through setting some env variables into a task.
I found the following link:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/scripts/logging-commands?view=azure-devops&tabs=powershell
which however does not seem to work.
What I am doing is simply to create a pipeline with a single task (either bash or PS), and there declaring the commands specified in the link through the inline version of the task.
Has anyone already successfully managed to make these commands work?
Do I do something wrong and/or incomplete?
Does anyone have a better way to customise the pipeline with relevant information from a task? E.g. through the release name, or the description and/or tag of the specific release?
Edit:
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=sauce;]crushed tomatoes"
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=secretSauce;issecret=true]crushed tomatoes with garlic"
Write-Host "Non-secrets automatically mapped in, sauce is $env:SAUCE"
Write-Host "Secrets are not automatically mapped in, secretSauce is $env:SECRETSAUCE"
Write-Host "You can use macro replacement to get secrets, and they'll be masked in the log: $(secretSauce)"
this is the code, copy and pasted. Now I tried also with the script, and it does not work either.
I use an hosted windows agent.
When you set a new variable with the logging command the variable is available only in the next tasks and not in the same task.
So, split your script to 2 tasks, in the second task put the last 3 lines and you will see that the first task works:
this also puzzled me for a while, in the end i found out that if you want to modify the $env:path you can call the special task called task.prependpath by using the special logging command syntax like "##vso[task.prependpath]local directory path". you can find more of this kind of special commands from their source :
https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks/blob/master/docs/authoring/commands.md
Related
In Azure Pipelines, I see that you can access the environment variables from scripts in node.js during a pipeline run. However, I want to actually return a value and then capture/use it.
Does anyone know how to do this? I can't find any references on how to do this in documentation.
For consistency's sake it'd be nice to use node scripts for everything and not go back and forth between node and bash.
Thanks
Okay I finally figured this out. Azure documentation is a bit confusing on the topic, but my approach was what follows. In this example, I'm going to make a rather pointless simple script that sets a variable whose value is the name of the source branch, but all lower case.
1) Define your variable
Defining a variable can be done simply (though there is a lot of depth to how variables are used and I suggest consulting Azure documentation on variable creation for more). However, at the top of your pipeline yaml file you can define it as such:
variables
lowerCaseBranchName: ''
This creates an empty variable for use across your jobs. We'll use this variable as our example.
2) Create your script
"Returning a value" from your script simply means outputting it via node's stdout, the output of which will be consumed by the task to set it as a pipeline variable.
An important thing to remember is that any environment variables from the pipeline can be used within node, they are just reformatted and moved under node's process.env global. For instance, the commonly used Build.SourceBranchName environment variable in azure pipelines is accessible in your node script via its alias process.env.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME. This uppercase name transformation should be uniform across all environment variables.
Here's an example node.js script:
const lowerCaseBranchName = process.env.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME.toLowerCase();
process.stdout.write(lowerCaseBranchName);
3) Consume the output in the relevant step in azure pipelines
To employ that script in a job step, call it with a script task. Remember that a script task is, in this case, a bash script (though you can use others) that runs node as a command as it sets the value of our variable:
- script: |
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=lowerCaseBranchName]$(node path/to/your/script)"
displayName: 'Get lower case branch name'
Breaking down the syntax
Using variable definition syntax is, in my opinion extremely ugly, but pretty easy to use once you understand it. The basic syntax for setting a variable in a script is the following:
##vso[task.setvariable variable=SOME_VARIABLE_NAME]SOME_VARIABLE_VALUE
Above, SOME_VARIABLE_NAME is the name of our variable (lowerCaseBranchName) as defined in our azure pipeline configuration at the beginning. Likewise, SOME_VARIABLE_VALUE is the value we want to set that variable to.
You could do an additional line above this line to create a variable independently that you can then use to set the env variable with, however I chose to just inline the script call as you can see in the example above usign the $() syntax.
That's it. In following tasks, the environment variable lowerCaseBranchName can be utilized using any of the variable syntaxes such as $(lowerCaseBranchName),
Final result
Defining our variable in our yaml file:
variables
lowerCaseBranchName: ''
Our nodejs script:
const lowerCaseBranchName = process.env.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME.toLowerCase();
process.stdout.write(lowerCaseBranchName);
Our pipeline task implementation/execution of said script:
- script: |
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=lowerCaseBranchName]$(node path/to/your/script)"
displayName: 'Get lower case branch name'
A following task using its output:
- script: |
echo "$(lowerCaseBranchName)"
displayName: 'Output lower case branch name'
This will print the lower-cased branch name to the pipline console when it runs.
Hope this helps somebody! Happy devops-ing!
I'm trying to get my build repository name as an uppercase string combining predefine variables and expressions on Azure Devops as follows:
variables:
repoNameUpper: $[upper(variables['Build.Repository.Name'])]
- script: |
echo $(repoNameUpper)
Yet I get no output from it, what am I doing wrong here?
Yes, I know I could set a variable to achieve what I need using a bash script, yet I think it would not be so cool.
It because the Build.Repository.Name is agent-scoped, and can be used as an environment variable in a script and as a parameter in a build task. in another words - is not known at plan compile time, only at job execution time.
You can find more info in this GitHub issue.
so I have my computer set up as an agent pool in azure-devops. I'm creating a test for latency so the developers can use it in their CI, the script runs in python and test various points in a system I have set up for the company which is connected to the cloud, it's mainly for informative purposes. When I run the script I have to wait some time, so the system I have connected goes through its normal network cycle inspecting all the devices in the local network, not very important for que question, however when I'm waiting I show in the terminal a message with "..." going from "." to ".." to "...", just to show the script didn't crash or anything.
the python code looks like this and works just fine when I run it locally:
sys.stdout.write("\rprocessing queue, timing varies depending on priority" + ("."*( i % 3 + 1))+ "\r")
sys.stdout.flush()
however the output shown in the azure pipeline shows all of the lines without replacing them. Is there a way to do what I want?
I am afraid showing progress is not supported in azure pipeline. Azure pipeline log console isnot user interactive. It just capture the agent machine terminal outputs.
You might have to use a simpler way to indicate that the script is now executing and not finished yet. For simple example:
sys.stdout.write("Waiting for processing queue ..." )
You can report this problem to microsoft development team. Hope they find a way to fix this in the future sprint.
I have seen it once but never actually used it myself, this can be done in both bash and PowerShell, not sure if this works inside a Python script, you might have to call bash/PowerShell from within your Python script.
It is possible to set a progress value in percent that is visible outside of the log, but as I understand it this value is step-spefific, meaning it only applies to the pipeline step you're currently in. You could drag the numeric value (however many percent) along into the next step, but the progress counter would then again show up in the next step. I believe it is not possible to have a pipeline global display of a progress.
If you export a progress value it will show up beside the step name in the left hand side step list.
This setting of a progress (also exporting one variable from one step to another, which is typically done that way) can be done by echoing special logging commands. There's a great description to be found here: Logging commands
What you want to do is something just as it is shown as an example on the linked page:
echo "Begin a lengthy process..."
for i in {0..100..10}
do
sleep 1
echo "##vso[task.setprogress value=$i;]Sample Progress Indicator"
done
echo "Lengthy process is complete."
All of these special logging commands start with ##vso[task... The VSO is a relict to the time when Azure DevOps was called Visual Studio Online.
There are a whole bunch of them, but most of the time what you really need is exporting variables from one build step context to another, which is done with ##vso[task.setvariable]value
With Azure Release Pipeline, in a task using the PowerShell Script, I am able to set values of variables and pass to next task using the command
Write-Host '##vso[task.setvariable variable=varResourceExists;isOutput=true;something'
However, when I put this similar command in a task that uses Azure PowerShell, this command is no longer allowed, the task produces a warning:
2019-10-22T00:23:14.3080614Z ##[warning]'##vso[task.setvariable
variable=varResourceExists;isOutput=true;something' contains logging
command keyword '##vso', but it's not a legal command. Please see the
list of accepted commands:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=817296
As a result, the variable varResourceExists cannot be set by my task. I have also tried a conventional PowerShell set value by doing
$varResourceExists = 'something'; # this also does not work
Is there a way I can set this value in Azure Powershell script so that the next task can reference it?
##vso[task.setvariable variable=varResourceExists;isOutput=true;something is not correct syntax. You're missing a closing ].
It should be ##vso[task.setvariable variable=varResourceExists;isOutput=true;]something
Here is how I solved my topic. In the pipeline Azure PowerShell task, I can have code such as Write-Host '##vso[task.setvariable variable=varResourceExists;isOutput=true;]False';
In the Output Variable option, I set a Reference Name "step1":
Output Variable
Then in the next step, I can do a conditional check using a Custom Condition:
Custom Condition
I can also reference the variable in my code such as Write-Host "The step1.varResourceExists says: $(step1.varResourceExists)";
I have created a powershell module (.psm1) file that includes a few other powershell scripts. We use it for sharepoint.
So basically, here's what happens:
I have a deploy script that retrieves the module location from the registry
It loads the module using the Import-Module cmdlet (using -force switch)
This module in turn loads the Sharepoint 2010 snap in and a few other scripts that I created
It runs runs a deployment script that references functions from the included scripts
It also runs a command line application and sends the output directly to the screen
The script will usually work the first time. However, after a few number of tries the commandline tool will stop working and sending output to the screen altogether. And if I try to run a commandline tool (not a cmd-let) after running my script, it don't worky anymore: no output, nothing is done. Its just the same as hitting enter on a blank prompt. anything powershell specific or running GUI applications will work fine but running any console application will not produce any concievable results. the only solution to this, is to just close my powershell and open it again. it will work for usually once and I will have to close it again. our users certainly wont be happy about that..
The most 'notable' things on the script:
scriptblocks are used extensively (for logging), a script block is sent to a handler that executes it using invokecommand and logs the step
its manipulating sharepoint objects
all objects are properly disposed of
no static variables are created nor changed
There are a few global variables shared across all scripts
What I have tried:
I striped my code to a bare minimum: loading an xml file, and restaring a few windows services but I'm still getting this intermittently. I have no idea which part of the code could cause this. I would love to post the code, but our company policy forbids me to. so my aplogies..
Update as per the comment below:
here's roughly how I use codeblocks. I have this function below that is used everytime I want to make the user aware of a task that I'm executing and what it outcome is.
function DoTask($someString, $scriptBlock, $param)
{
try
{
OutputTaskDescription $someString
InvokeCommand $scriptBlock -ArgumentList $param
OutputResultOK
}
catch
{
OutputResultError $_.tostring()
}
}
it could then be used like this:
$stringVar = "something"
$SpSite = new-spsite
deploySomething 'Deploying something' -param $spsite -ScriptBlock {
dosomethingToObject $stringvar
dosomethingToObject $spSite.Name
}
it would then output something like:
Deploying Something ------------- OK
Deploying Something ------------- ERROR
Also notice that I pass the $spsite in the argument list and I just use the string directly. I still don't understand how this works but it seems like I can access all primitive typed variables even without passing them as arguments but I have to pass more complex objects are params, else they dont have any value.
Update:
after much searching and days of pain. I have found others with the same pain. My code exhibits the same exact symptoms as described here:
http://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/496326/stability-problem-any-application-run-fails-with-lastexitcode-1073741502
I guess there is no solution yet to this problem.
After a little while I've noticed that if I've ran some very memory intensive functions, I too have gotten that behavior where everything you try to execute just goes to the prompt again. I'd recommend setting Set-PsDebug -Trace 2 to see what those functions are actually doing. I fixed my issue by doing this and figuring out how to make my functions more efficient.