Jenkins integration with Grunt

Question

I've setup Jenkins v1.550 on Windows Server 2008 R2. It runs as a service at http://localhost:8080 for now. I'm logged into the machine as an Administrator. I've installed Node.js and can run "npm" from the command line.

I've also installed the NodeJS plugin v0.2.1 for Jenkins. I then went into the Configure System section of Jenkins, scrolled down to NodeJS installations, clicked on Add NodeJS button, gave "NodeJS" as the name, and "C:\Program Files\nodejs" as the path to the installation directory. I didn't check the "Install automatically" option as I read on the plugin page that it is only available to Linux.

I then created a new job, clicked the checkbox that said "Provide Node & npm bin/ folder to PATH", created a new build step for "Execute Windows batch command" and typed in "node --version" and "grunt --version" and saved it.

I ran the job and this is the output -

Building in workspace C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test_1.0
[Test_1.0] $ cmd /c call C:\Windows\TEMP\hudson1381541243088903083.bat

C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test_1.0>node --version 
v0.10.24

C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test_1.0>grunt --version 
'grunt' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test_1.0>exit 9009 
Build step 'Execute Windows batch command' marked build as failure
Finished: FAILURE

It looks like it's unable to find the grunt-cli for the user account Jenkins is running under (System). I tried to installing grunt cli globally (npm install -g grunt-cli) and also grunt locally (npm install grunt). No luck.

Can someone please help?

Answer 1

for nice easy to configure self-installed nodejs on the machine, i have to recommend the excellent -> http://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/NodeJS+Plugin

it will install nodejs and grunt on the machine, through easy to use web front end no shell required

jenkins jobs can then simply run nodejs build steps, hey presto

steps involved :

a) install this on your jenkins instance -> http://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/NodeJS+Plugin

b) create a nodejs installation on jenkins

go to

http://URL_OF_JENKINS/jenkins/configure

• NodeJS- > NodeJS installations -> Add NodeJS -> Name = "NodeJS 0.11.10", tick "Install automatically", select "Install from nodejs.org", add "grunt-cli" to globally installed packages

c) create a job with "execute NodeJS script" build task

var sys = require('sys');
sys.puts('NodeJS Test');
sys.puts('***************');
sys.puts('helloworld');

volia :)

run the job and see the nodejs script run,

from their the world is your oyster you can use grunt by ticking "Provide Node/npm bin folder to PATH" and running a "execute shell" build task

npm update
grunt
grunt --force reporting

Answer 2

You will need to restart the Jenkins service after installing node, presumably to cause it to refresh its cached copy of your PATH environment variable

Answer 3

I have grunt doing some tasks for me in Jenkins, but I went the npm script route. Grunt and grunt-cli are dev dependencies, and I have the following defined in my package.json file:

"scripts": {
    "test": "node node_modules/grunt-cli/bin/grunt test"
},

In Jenkins (running on Windows), I added two post-build tasks:

npm install

npm test

We just installed NodeJs normally on the Jenkins server.

Answer 4

Another solution that worked for me on Windows is to use the full path to the grunt exec file, which can be found by writing "where grunt" in the command shell. I used the full path in the regular bat-file.

Answer 5

Had the same issue on Windows. When I manually installed node and ran npm install -g grunt-cli from command line, jenkins could not recognize the grunt command. So uninstall node, reinstall it but dont run npm install. Then restart the jenkins slave. Then from the jenkins job that runs on your specific jenkins slave, make it run a Windows batch command that runs npm install -g grunt-cli After that again restart the jenkins service. Then from the job run npm install. Then everything worked for me. If issues still persist, then uninstall the slave, and reinstall it, then everything works fine immediately.