azure yaml pipeline - name property from variables template file

Question

I have several build pipelines that have the same name property pattern:

name: $(date:yy).$(minorVersionPrefix)$(date:MMdd)$(rev:.r)

Instead of defining it in every file, I wanted to use global variables template yaml file and get build name defined from that file.

So what I would like to have is, in the pipeline yaml:

name: $(buildName)
variables:
- template: global.yaml

And inside global.yaml:

variables:
  minorVersionPrefix: '0'
  buildName: $(date:yy).$(minorVersionPrefix)$(date:MMdd)$(rev:.r)

The problem is that the syntax inside the global.yaml file does not work. I also tried template syntax but, for example, date is not defined there (variables.date is null).

Is there a way to generate build name globally and inject it as a variable value, or maybe it is possible to set name variable pattern from global variable as string in pre-processing phase so it is then interpreted as if it was in the pipeline file?

Answer 1

Confirm that the date variable is unavailable in Variable templates. However, we can use the counter function in variable templates. It evaluates a number that is incremented with each run of a pipeline.

For example:

Variable template Yaml: vars.yml

variables:
- name: major
  value: '1'
- name: minor
  value: '0'
- name: patch
  value: $[counter(format('{0}.{1}-{2}', variables['major'], variables['minor'], variables['Build.SourceBranchName']), 1)]

azure-Pipelines.yml

name: $(major).$(minor)-$(patch).$(Build.SourceBranchName)

trigger: none

variables:
- template: templates/vars.yml  # Template reference

pool:
  vmImage: Windows-latest

steps:
- script: |
    echo xxx

In this way we still have to add the name in every yaml file. But we just need to adjust the value of the variables in template. It will apply the values to all pipelines using the variable template.

The build number is set like this:

Alternately, we can add a steps template with a script extending Pipelines functionality to update the build number by running logging command. See I want to do something that is not supported by expressions. What options do I have for extending Pipelines functionality?.

For example:

Steps template: global.yml

steps:
- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: 'Preparing Build Number'
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      #Set the minorVersion prefix per your requirement
      $minorVersionPrefix = "0" 
      Write-Host "minorVersionPrefix:" $minorVersionPrefix
      Write-Host "Original BuildNumber:" $(Build.BuildNumber)
      Write-Host "BuildId:" $(Build.BuildId)
      
      #splits the $(rev:.r)
      $MAJOR_RUN=$(echo $(Build.BuildNumber) | cut -d '.' -f1)
      echo "This is the major run number: $MAJOR_RUN"
      echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=major]$MAJOR_RUN"

      $MINOR_RUN=$(echo $(Build.BuildNumber) | cut -d '.' -f2)  #By default, if you do not explicitly set the pipeline name with custom format, the value should be $(rev:.r) value. So we can set it as revision.
      echo "This is the minor run number: $MINOR_RUN"
      echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=minor]$MINOR_RUN"
      
      #Set date variables
      $currentDate = $(Get-Date)
      $year = $currentDate.Year
      $month = $currentDate.Month
      $day = $currentDate.Day
      Write-Host $currentDate
      
      #Set new buildNumber
      $buildNumber = "$year.$month.$day.$minorVersionPrefix.$MINOR_RUN"
      Write-Host "Setting the name of the build to $buildNumber."

      #Update the buildNumber with the new value
      Write-Host "##vso[build.updatebuildnumber]$buildNumber"

azure-pipeline.yml:

trigger: none

pool:
  vmImage: Windows-latest

steps:
- template: templates/global.yml

In this way we do not need to add name in pipelines, the script will update the buildNumber automatically using the patterns defined in the script. So, we just need to update the patterns in global.yml to make it take effect.

The build number will be updated like this:

UPDATE:

The included variable template can only be used to define variables but cannot pass variables. See Variable reuse for details.

We can use variables inside of templates and can be used in expressions only, but doesn't include $(date) and $(rev:.r), they are not available here. See How can I use variables inside of templates? for details.

The simplest way for you is to only set the minorVersionPrefix: '0' in variable template (global.yml). Then use the name: $(date:yy).$(minorVersionPrefix)$(date:MMdd)$(rev:.r) in your pipelines. Thus, you can control the minor version in global.yml.