Refresh environment variables in Azure Pipeline build

Question

How to I refresh environment variables for later steps in the same build that indirectly changes those variables?

Section of a the test YAML file that reproduces the described behavior.

jobs:
- job: welldone
  pool: 
    name: noodle
  steps:
  - script: |
      echo select TestStand 2016
      start /wait "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\Shared\TestStand Version Selector\TSVerSelect.exe" /version 16.0 /installing /noprompt
    displayName: 'select TestStand version 16'

  - script: |
      echo Check TestStand version
      echo %TestStand%
      call RefreshEnv.cmd
      echo %TestStand%
    displayName: 'print TestStand version'

  - script: |
      call checkTSversion.bat
      call RefreshEnv.cmd
      call checkTSversion.bat
    displayName: 'call bat file to print TestStand version'

First script calls TestStand Version Selector that changes environment variables among other things.

2nd script prints environment variables starting with "teststand", then calls refreshenv.cmd and prints variables again. First prints old variables, second - updated. This is consistent with expected behavior of cmd, I suppose.

3rd script does the same, but now the echo %TestStand% is in a separate batch file. It behaves exactly as 2nd script.

What can I do in the 1st script to make sure that consecutive scripts will read updated environment variables?

You can't. Each time you start a new instance of cmd and change environment variables it does not pass those changes up to the parent cmd. — DavidPostill, Jan 12 '20 at 14:33
@DavidPostill thanks for your comment. It looks like it is the answer to my question (i.e. "nothing you can do, impossible"). I can update variables for the current script though. Is there a better way to do it? Entirely different approach, maybe? Should I ask another, differently phrased question then? — Jurkstas, Jan 13 '20 at 13:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '20 at 08:31

I'm not entirely sure that I understand your sample pipeline, but it seems to me like you want to set variables and/or change variable values in a job step and then use the new value in a later job step. Correct? If so, you're looking for something like this:

steps:
# Create a variable
# Note that this does _not_ update the environment of the current script.
- bash: |
    echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=sauce]crushed tomatoes"

# An environment variable called `SAUCE` has been added to all downstream steps
- bash: |
    echo "my environment variable is $SAUCE"
- pwsh: |
    Write-Host "my environment variable is $env:SAUCE"

Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2Cbatch#set-variables-in-scripts

Refresh environment variables in Azure Pipeline build

1 Answers1