How to set a variable in a DevOps Pipeline PowerShell task and use that variable as a condition for another task

Question

I've looked at various examples of setting variables and conditions for tasks in a DevOps pipeline but I can't quite seem to grok it for the usecase I have.

I want a PowerShell task to set a variable to true or false, then use that variable as a condition for another task which will create an artifact.

What I has so far, from reading around online is this:

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      #Some logic here
      
      if ($logicEvaluatedToTrue) {
          Write-Host "Artifacts will be created"
          Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=requiresRelease;isSecret=false;isOutput=true;]$true"
      } 
      else {
          Write-Host "No artifacts will be created"
      }
    failOnStderr: true

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
       #Both of these do not contain any values
       Write-Host $env:requiresRelease
       Write-Host $requiresRelease
    failOnStderr: true

# this just evaluates to Expanded: and(True, eq(Null, 'true'))
- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  condition: and(succeeded(), eq(variables.requiresRelease, 'true'))
  inputs:
    targetPath: 'snip1.zip'
    artifact: 'snip1'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

# this just evaluates to Expanded: and(True, eq(Null, 'true')) too
- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  condition: and(succeeded(), eq(variables['requiresRelease'], 'true'))
  inputs:
    targetPath: 'snip2.txt'
    artifact: 'snip2'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

I've tried setting a variable first like this:

variables:
  #existing vars first
  requiresRelease: false

But when I do that, the evaluation of the condition becomes Expanded: and(True, eq('false', 'true')) . Any help you have would be appreciated.

Shayki Abramczyk · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-16 10:15:55Z

1

You need to remove the isOutput=true when you assign the value:

Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=requiresRelease;isSecret=false;]$true"

For print the value use the following syntax:

Write-Host $(requiresRelease)

answered Nov 16, 2020 at 10:15

Shayki Abramczyk

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2 Comments

Josh Over a year ago

Thank you so much! Do you have any insight or links for why the isOutput=true was wrong?

Shayki Abramczyk Over a year ago

When you use isOutput=true you can refer the variable with the task name + variable name. see here: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/… and here: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/scripts/…

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