Jenkins pipeline if else not working

Question

I am creating a sample jenkins pipeline, here is the code.

pipeline {
    agent any 

    stages {    
        stage('test') { 
            steps { 
                sh 'echo hello'
            }            
        }
        stage('test1') { 
            steps { 
                sh 'echo $TEST'
            }            
        }
        stage('test3') {
            if (env.BRANCH_NAME == 'master') {
                echo 'I only execute on the master branch'
            } else {
                echo 'I execute elsewhere'
            }                        
        }        
    }
}

this pipeline fails with following error logs

Started by user admin
org.codehaus.groovy.control.MultipleCompilationErrorsException: startup failed:
WorkflowScript: 15: Not a valid stage section definition: "if (env.BRANCH_NAME == 'master') {
                echo 'I only execute on the master branch'
            } else {
                echo 'I execute elsewhere'
            }". Some extra configuration is required. @ line 15, column 9.
           stage('test3') {
           ^

WorkflowScript: 15: Nothing to execute within stage "test3" @ line 15, column 9.
           stage('test3') {
           ^

But when i execute the following example from this url, it executes successfully and print the else part.

node {
    stage('Example') {
        if (env.BRANCH_NAME == 'master') {
            echo 'I only execute on the master branch'
        } else {
            echo 'I execute elsewhere'
        }
    }
}

The only difference i can see is that in the working example there is no stages but in my case it has.

What is wrong here, can anyone please suggest?

Answer 1

your first try is using declarative pipelines, and the second working one is using scripted pipelines. you need to enclose steps in a steps declaration, and you can't use if as a top-level step in declarative, so you need to wrap it in a script step. here's a working declarative version:

pipeline {
    agent any

    stages {
        stage('test') {
            steps {
                sh 'echo hello'
            }
        }
        stage('test1') {
            steps {
                sh 'echo $TEST'
            }
        }
        stage('test3') {
            steps {
                script {
                    if (env.BRANCH_NAME == 'master') {
                        echo 'I only execute on the master branch'
                    } else {
                        echo 'I execute elsewhere'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

you can simplify this and potentially avoid the if statement (as long as you don't need the else) by using "when". See "when directive" at https://jenkins.io/doc/book/pipeline/syntax/. you can also validate jenkinsfiles using the jenkins rest api. it's super sweet. have fun with declarative pipelines in jenkins!