This guide covers the setup and configuration of Perforce tasks from Jenkins Pipeline scripts and assumes the reader is experienced with Jenkins Pipeline. If you are starting out or unfamiliar Pipeline please read The Jenkins Pipeline documentation:
https://jenkins.io/doc/book/pipeline/
Almost all Perforce operations require a Perforce Credential, as in Freestyle Jobs the plugin for Pipeline requires either a Perforce Password Credential or Perforce Ticket Credential. Please refer to the initial Setup guide for details on creating a Perforce Credential.
When using a Perforce Credential with Pipeline it is recommended to set the ID field to a short user friendly name. This might be hidden in the Advanced options depending on the version of your Jenkins server.
The simplest way to populate your Jenkins workspace from Perforce is by using the p4sync DSL. This requires a
minimum of three attributes: the Perforce Credential, a populate class and a codeline. The 'Pipeline Syntax' snippet
generator can help build the DSL code. Select 'p4sync: P4 Sync' from the dropdown menu and fill out the attribute
fields as required.
You only need to provide one codeline: 'Stream Codeline' for streams paths, 'Template Workspace' if you have defined the path in another Workspaces View, or 'Depot path' to refer to a classic depot location in Perforce.
This generated the following snippet...
p4sync(charset: 'none',
credential: 'phooey1666',
populate: [$class: 'AutoCleanImpl',
delete: true,
modtime: false,
pin: '',
quiet: true,
replace: true],
stream: '//streams/st1-main')and you can paste it into a basic script. For example:
node {
stage('Sync') {
// sync files from //streams/st1-main/...
p4sync(charset: 'none',
credential: 'phooey1666',
populate: [$class: 'AutoCleanImpl',
delete: true,
modtime: false,
pin: '',
quiet: true,
replace: true],
stream: '//streams/st1-main')
}
}If you need more than one sync task in a script you MUST use a different workspace name.
You can control this by customising the 'Workspace Name Format' field. The default value is
jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER} and will not appear in the generated snippet, however if you change this to
jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}-libs you will see a new attribute in the snippet
format: 'jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}-libs'.
If you require full access to the Populate options available with Freestyle Jobs you can use the General SCM checkout
option. Select checkout: General SCM from the dropdown and choose Perforce Software from the SCM dropdown.
This allows full customisation of the Workspace View Mappings, for example:
node {
stage('Sync') {
// sync files from //streams/st1-main/...
checkout([$class: 'PerforceScm',
credential: 'phooey1666',
populate: [$class: 'AutoCleanImpl',
delete: true,
modtime: false,
parallel: [enable: false, minbytes: '1024', minfiles: '1', path: '/usr/local/bin/p4', threads: '4'],
pin: '',
quiet: true,
replace: true],
workspace: [$class: 'ManualWorkspaceImpl',
charset: 'none',
name: 'jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}',
pinHost: false,
spec: [allwrite: false,
clobber: false,
compress: false,
line: 'LOCAL',
locked: false,
modtime: false,
rmdir: false,
streamName: '',
view: '''//depot/libs/${OS}/... //jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}/libs/...
//depot/code/... //jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}/code/...'''
]
]
])
}
}You can use the Publish, Tag, Unshelve and Cleanup steps from Freestyle. The are available from the dropdown menu and use the same Configuration dialogs as Freestyle. For example: P4 Publish
p4publish(credential: 'phooey1666',
publish: [$class: 'SubmitImpl',
delete: false,
description: 'Submitted by Jenkins. Build: ${BUILD_TAG}',
onlyOnSuccess: false,
purge: '',
reopen: false],
workspace: [$class: 'StreamWorkspaceImpl',
charset: 'none',
format: 'jenkins-${NODE_NAME}-${JOB_NAME}-${EXECUTOR_NUMBER}-publish',
pinHost: false,
streamName: '//streams/st2-rel1'])Pipeline supports fetching the DSL script from the SCM. Typically called Jenkinsfile and located in the root of
the project. For the P4 Plugin to operate in this mode you need to provide a Perforce Credential and Workspace
mapping the location of the Jenkinsfile.
To do this; create a Pipeline project and select 'Pipeline script from SCM', choose 'Perforce Software' for the SCM and fill out the fields as required. For example:
-
Use a unique workspace name for the Jenkinsfile that will not get reused by the sync steps in the script. A postfix of
-scriptwill help to identify the workspace's use and make it unique from code sync steps. -
Only map the Jenkinsfile (and perhaps Pipeline libraries) in the workspace view. Jenkins may create an '@script' directory on the master and you don't want to unnecessarily sync code to an area not used for the actual build.
The 'Pipeline script from SCM' would normally use a Perforce Sync to fetch the versioned Jenkinsfile, however if the workspace view included more than just the Jenkinsfile the operation could be expensive. Jenkins introduced the 'Lightweight checkout' option that can navigate the SCM and fetch files as required.
Enabling the option will use a 'p4 print' to fetch the Jenkinsfile negating the need for syncing the script files.
If you are using declarative pipeline and not the old DSL, you will need to disable the automatic 'Declarative Checkout SCM' step. For example, the declarative pipeline script has three steps, yet the build will show four:
pipeline {
agent any
stages {
stage('Build') {
steps {
echo 'Building...'
}
}
stage('Test') {
steps {
echo 'Testing...'
}
}
stage('Deploy') {
steps {
echo 'Deploying...'
}
}
}
}
Simply add options { skipDefaultCheckout() } to the agent. For example:
pipeline {
agent any
options { skipDefaultCheckout() }
stages {
stage('Build') {
steps {
echo 'Building...'
}
}
stage('Test') {
steps {
echo 'Testing...'
}
}
stage('Deploy') {
steps {
echo 'Deploying...'
}
}
}
}Jenkins will poll for each sync step in a build script and also for the Jenkinsfile if using the 'Pipeline script from
SCM' option. The advanced populate option checkout: General SCM provides check boxes to disable polling (and
changelog).
Polling requires access to previous build data (build.xml). The P4 Plugin tracks the previous build change using a
syncID as a polling operation might iterate over multiple sync steps. The syncID is normally calculated from
the client workspace name, but must be unique enough to distinguish between multiple sync steps, but common enough
to identify previous builds. For this reason if the client Workspace name contains any of the following variables
their values will be ignored when determining the syncID:
- NODE_NAME (which might change between slaves)
- BUILD_NUMBER (which changes for each build)
- EXECUTOR_NUMBER (changes based on the execution thread)
In very rare circumstances a user may want to override the syncID, this can be done by specifying the attribute on
a workspace: class.
Core Jenkins ties changelist reporting to individual 'p4 sync' commands. If the same job has multiple 'checkout' or 'p4sync' steps that sync the same changelist it will be reported once for each individual sync on the 'Status' and 'Changes' pages. The P4Jenkins plugin is not able to override this behavior.