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Definitions

Term	Definition
Artifact	item from a git repository or a build pipeline
Stages	steps to deploy and validate a software a stage contains jobs
Job	subparts of a stage, contains tasks to execute listed as steps a job runs on a agent or can be manually ran
Tasks / Steps	subparts of a job, those are the concreate action to execute
Release pipeline definition	steps to execute to get the artefacts, install and validate the software template to run a release
Release agent	the one who execute the tasks defined in the release pipeline definition it is the same agent as the one used for the build

Release variables

Predefined variables

YAML

Create a new pipeline

From an existing YAML file

Pipelines → New pipeline
Azure Repo Git YAML → Select your repo → Existing Azure pipelines YAML file

Exemple

# do not trigger the pipeline on events
trigger: none

parameters:
- name: myStepList
  type: stepList
  default:
    - bash: echo "We are on $(MyVar)"

# If you have a single stage, you can omit the stages keyword and directly specify the jobs keyword
stages:
- stage: CI
  displayName: CI stage
  # remove implicite depency on the previous stage, the stages will run in parallel
  dependsOn: []
  jobs:
  - job: ci_job
    pool: MyPool
    # If you have a single stage and a single job, you can omit the stages and jobs keywords and directly specify the steps keyword
    steps:
    - powershell: Write-Host "We are on CI"
      enabled: false  # disable the task

- stage: PROD
  displayName: PROD stage
  dependsOn: []
  jobs:
  # use deployment job with environment and strategy to use the approval mechanism
  - deployment: prod_job
    environment: PROD
    strategy:
      runOnce:
        deploy:
          steps: ${{ parameters.myStepList }}

YAML schema reference

stage

stages:
- stage: stage_name  # (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscore)
  # friendly name to display in the UI
  displayName: 'Stage name'

  variables: # ...
  condition: # ...

  jobs: [ job | templateReference]

Job

jobs:
- job: job_name  # (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscore)
  # friendly name to display in the UI
  displayName: 'Job name'

  variables: # ...

  pool: PoolName

  dependsOn: job1
  dependsOn:
  - job1
  - job2

  condition: # ...

  # what to clean up before the job runs
  workspace:
    clean: outputs | resources | all

  steps: [ script | bash | pwsh | powershell | checkout | task | templateReference ]

Pool

# if you use a private pool and don't need to specify demands
pool: PoolName

pool:
  name: PoolName
  demands:
  - myCustomCapability       # check for existence of capability
  - agent.os -equals Darwin  # check for specific string in capability

Step / task

steps:

# step
- task: TaskToCall@Version  # VSBuild@1
  name: StepName  # A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscore
  displayName: 'My Step'
  timeoutInMinutes: 120
  inputs:
    key: 'value'

# runs a script in Bash
- bash: |
    which bash
    echo Hello $(whoami)
  # friendly name displayed in the UI
  displayName: Multiline Bash script

# runs a script in PowerShell Core
- pwsh: Write-Host Hello $(name)

# runs a script in Windows PowerShell
- powershell: Write-Host Hello $(name)

# checkout git repo
- checkout: self | none | repository name # self represents the repo where the initial Pipelines YAML file was found
  clean: boolean  # if true, run `execute git clean -ffdx && git reset --hard HEAD` before fetching
  fetchDepth: number  # the depth of commits to ask Git to fetch

Shallow fetch

PowerShell step and task

- powershell: 'cmd'
# 4 blank characters before the command
- powershell: |
    'cmd1'
    'cmd2'

# pwsh runs PowerShell Core, which must be installed on the agent or container.
- pwsh: 'cmd'

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: 'PowerShell Script'
  inputs:
    targetType: filePath
    filePath: 'MyScript.ps1'
    arguments: '-Arg1 "Arg1"'

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: 'PowerShell Script'
  inputs:
    targetType: inline
    script: |
      cmd1
      cmd2

Variables

# scope: root, stage, job
variables:
  variable_name: 'value'

Runtime parameters

Ces paramètres sont sélectionnable à chaque lancement de la pipeline.

parameters:
- name: my_parameter
  displayName: My parameter
  type: string
  default: Value1
  values:
  - Value1
  - Value2

Repositories

resources:
  repositories: 
  - repository: RepoId  # A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscore
    name: ProjectName/RepoName  # repository name (format depends on `type`)
    type: git 
    ref: master

steps:
  - checkout: self    # checkout in C:\agent\_work\1\s\CurrentRepoId
  - checkout: RepoId  # checkout in C:\agent\_work\1\s\RepoId

Condition

stages:
- stage: Stage1
  condition: eq(variables.Var1, 'Value1')
  jobs:
    - job:
      steps:
      - powershell: 'cmd'
        condition: eq('${{ parameters.Param1 }}', 'Value1')

Template

Insert a template

Reuse stages, jobs ans tasks.

stages-template.yml

stages:
- stage: Stage1
  jobs:
  - job: Job1
    steps:
    - script: echo 'stages template'

jobs-template.yml

jobs:
- job: Job1
  steps:
  - script: echo 'jobs template'

tasks-template.yml

steps:
- script: echo 'tasks template'

my-pipeline.yml

stages:
- template: stages-template.yml
- stage: Stage2
  jobs:
  - template: jobs-template.yml
- stage: Stage3
  jobs:
  - job: ExcecuteTasks
    steps:
    - template: tasks-template.yml

Extend from a template

Copy the template in the pipeline.

my-template.yml

resources:
  repositories: 
  - repository: MyRepo
    type: git 
    name: MyProject/MyRepo

steps:
- script: echo "My template"

my-pipepline.yml

extends:
  template: my-template.yml

Parameters