what exactly does “archive artifacts” step do in Jenkins?

Question

I have a Jenkins master server plus multiple slave machines that get created and destroyed all the time.

I could not find any documentation on what exactly \"archive

Answer 1

If you are talking about the "Archive the artifacts" post-build step, it copies the selected artifacts in the %JENKINS_HOME%/jobs/MY_JOB/builds/... on the master server.

So if you delete your slave or if you wipe your workspace, you won't lose your artifacts.

But if you delete a build or if you discard the old builds, you will remove the artifacts.

I hope it helps :)