Sourcing environment variables on node

[Christoph Ruepprich]

Hi all,

on a remote node I have a file that exports some variables:

$ cat myenv

export FOO=Hello

export BAR=World

My pipeline script tries to source that file, but the variables don't seem to stick:

node ('remote-server') {

    sh ('. /home/cmr/myenv')

    echo "My Variables: ${env.FOO} ${env.BAR}"

}

Output:

[set-remote-env] Running shell script
+ . /home/cmr/myenv
++ export FOO=Hello
++ FOO=Hello
++ export BAR=World
++ BAR=World
[Pipeline] echo
My Variables: null null

When I source directly from the server's command prompt, the variables stick:

$ . myenv

$ echo "My Variables: $FOO $BAR"

My Variables: Hello World

$

How can I source environment variables in my pipeline script?

Thanks!

[itchymuzzle]

Maybe something like this?

node ('remote-server') {

    sh '''

       . /home/cmr/myenv'

    '''

}

[Christoph Ruepprich]

Thanks ichymuzzle. It worked with a minor change.

So the problem is that each sh looses it's environment. Is there a way to set it globally?

node ('remote-server') {

    sh ('''

       . /home/cmr/myenv

       echo "My Variables: $FOO $BAR"

    ''')

[itchymuzzle]

Don't know how to set it globally, most likely someone will know how to do that and respond.

> each sh looses it's environment.

Each sh is it's own environment.  If you have two different terminals up, what you do in one isn't known in the other. For example.

[Robert Hales]

Yeah, as you found, the environment is the sh is only present during that run. It is just like dropping to a shell (or running another shell within a shell), running some things, and then exiting. 

If you want to set them globally, you will need to set them in an environment block in declarative pipeline, or in groovy code. env.FOO = "BAR". 

If you want to try to set something in the shell, and then get those values back into the pipeline, it gets a little harder. You can return just a value from a shell script and assign that to a variable. Or you can look at the pipeline utility steps plugin to suck things in from a file.