How to keep secure files after a job finishes in Azure Devops Pipeline? - azure-devops

Question

Currently I'm working on a pipeline script for Azure Devops. I want to provide a maven settings file as a secure files for the pipeline. The problem is, when I define a job only for providing the file, the file isn't there anymore when the next job starts.
I tried to define a job with a DownloadSecureFile task and a copy command to get the settings file. But when the next job starts the file isn't there anymore and therefore can't be used.
I already checked that by using pwd and ls in the pipeline.
This is part of my current YAML file (that actually works):
some variables
...
trigger:
branches:
include:
- stable
- master
jobs:
- job: Latest_Release
condition: eq(variables['Build.SourceBranchName'], 'master')
steps:
- task: DownloadSecureFile#1
name: settingsxml
displayName: Download maven settings xml
inputs:
secureFile: settings.xml
- script: |
cp $(settingsxml.secureFilePath) ./settings.xml
docker login -u $(AzureRegistryUser) -p $(AzureRegistryPassword) $(AzureRegistryUrl)
docker build -t $(AzureRegistryUrl)/$(projectName):$(projectVersionNumber-Latest) .
docker push $(AzureRegistryUrl)/$(projectName):$(projectVersionNumber-Latest)
....
other jobs
I wanted to put the DownloadSecureFile task and "cp $(settingsxml.secureFilePath) ./settings.xml" into an own job, because there are more jobs that need this file for other branches/releases and I don't want to copy the exact same code to all jobs.
This is the YAML file as I wanted it:
some variables
...
trigger:
branches:
include:
- stable
- master
jobs:
- job: provide_maven_settings
# no condition because all branches need the file
- task: DownloadSecureFile#1
name: settingsxml
displayName: Download maven settings xml
inputs:
secureFile: settings.xml
- script: |
cp $(settingsxml.secureFilePath) ./settings.xml
- job: Latest_Release
condition: eq(variables['Build.SourceBranchName'], 'master')
steps:
- script: |
docker login -u $(AzureRegistryUser) -p $(AzureRegistryPassword) $(AzureRegistryUrl)
docker build -t $(AzureRegistryUrl)/$(projectName):$(projectVersionNumber-Latest) .
docker push $(AzureRegistryUrl)/$(projectName):$(projectVersionNumber-Latest)
....
other jobs
In my dockerfile the settings file is used like this:
FROM maven:3.6.1-jdk-8-alpine AS MAVEN_TOOL_CHAIN
COPY pom.xml /tmp/
COPY src /tmp/src/
COPY settings.xml /root/.m2/ # can't find file when executing this
WORKDIR /tmp/
RUN mvn install
...
The error happens, when docker build is started, because it can't find the settings file. It can though, when I use my first YAML example. I have a feeling that it has something to do with each job having a "Checkout" phase, but I'm not sure about that.

Answer 1

Each job in Azure DevOps is running on different agent, so when you use Microsoft Hosted Agents and you separator the pipeline to few jobs, if you copy the secure file in one job, the second job running in new fresh agent that of course don't have the file.
You can solve your issue by using Self Hosted agent (then copy the file to your machine and the second job running in the same machine).
Or you can upload the file to somewhere else (secured) that you can downloaded it in the second job (so why not do it from the start...).