How to quickly in one step determine if you need to run the rest

Pipelines
1

we have a lengthy pipeline. but we also some of the files which don’t require any build/test. What is the best way to determine something in step1 and then bypass the rest of the steps?

Is conditional the way to go? Can i make groups run or not run conditionally? Any other methods? thanks

2

Hey @js-cb!

Thanks for reaching out :wave:

Conditionals/groups can definitely be used - you could also combine that with the Buildkite agent’s outcome functionality to check on the outcome of step1 (either will be passed/hard_failed/soft_failed) to then determine what your pipeline does post the check (dynamic upload/more steps etc).

Hope this helps!

1 Like
3

great! thanks James

4

No worries @js-cb!

Please reach out if anything else is needed!

5

The outcome is not very desirable because I have to get down to the command level for every single step and add that
Group conditional is a good route for me. Can I make my initial step define an ENV var (based on a full build being required or not) and then use that in the if attribute of the next group?

6

You can definitely use an environment variable to pass on to that initial step in an if conditional: you’ll need to interpolate it at runtime with SS or \S (for example $$EXAMPLE_VAR == "foo"

You can also use the outcome functionality with group keys if it assists also: for example should you have a group with a label group1 - you can get its outcome just like a step:

steps:
  - group: "Group example"
    key: "group1"
    steps:
      - label: ":wave: First wave"
        key: wave_1
        command: "echo 'Hello - first!'"
      - label: ":wave: Second wave"
        key: wave_2
        command: "echo 'Hello - second!'"
        depends_on:
        - wave_1
  - command: |
      if [ $$(buildkite-agent step get "outcome" --step "group1") == "passed" ]; then
        buildkite-agent pipeline upload buildkite-example.yml
      fi
    depends_on:
    - group1

Hope this helps!

7

ok this is going to be very helpful:
buildkite-agent pipeline upload buildkite-example.yml

8

Happy to hear!

Its that dynamic upload in the recommendation that holds power in the conditional: you could further upload more groups/different pipelines based on outcomes, which then you could repeat this for various pipelines and such :+1: