Create a file with some content using Groovy in Jenkins pipeline

Question

I am trying to create a file called groovy1.txt with the content "Working with files the Groovy way is easy."

Note: I don't want to use the shell to create this file, instead I want to use Groovy to achieve this.

I have following script in my Jenkins pipeline.

node {
def file1 = new File('groovy1.txt')
file1.write 'Working with files the Groovy way is easy.\n'

sh 'ls -l'
// Expecting the file groovy1.txt should present with the content mentioned above
}

But it is throwing FileNotFound (permission denied) error as below

java.io.FileNotFoundException: groovy1.txt (Permission denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(FileOutputStream.java:270)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:213)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:162)
at java.io.FileWriter.<init>(FileWriter.java:90)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ResourceGroovyMethods.write(ResourceGroovyMethods.java:740)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.dgm$1035.doMethodInvoke(Unknown Source)
at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1213)
at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1022)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PojoMetaClassSite.call(PojoMetaClassSite.java:47)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:48)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:113)
at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker$1.call(Checker.java:157)
at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.GroovyInterceptor.onMethodCall(GroovyInterceptor.java:23)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.SandboxInterceptor.onMethodCall(SandboxInterceptor.java:104)
at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker$1.call(Checker.java:155)
at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker.checkedCall(Checker.java:159)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.sandbox.SandboxInvoker.methodCall(SandboxInvoker.java:17)
at WorkflowScript.run(WorkflowScript:3)
at ___cps.transform___(Native Method)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.impl.ContinuationGroup.methodCall(ContinuationGroup.java:57)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.impl.FunctionCallBlock$ContinuationImpl.dispatchOrArg(FunctionCallBlock.java:109)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.impl.FunctionCallBlock$ContinuationImpl.fixArg(FunctionCallBlock.java:82)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor257.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.impl.ContinuationPtr$ContinuationImpl.receive(ContinuationPtr.java:72)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.impl.ConstantBlock.eval(ConstantBlock.java:21)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.Next.step(Next.java:83)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.Continuable$1.call(Continuable.java:174)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.Continuable$1.call(Continuable.java:163)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.GroovyCategorySupport$ThreadCategoryInfo.use(GroovyCategorySupport.java:122)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.GroovyCategorySupport.use(GroovyCategorySupport.java:261)
at com.cloudbees.groovy.cps.Continuable.run0(Continuable.java:163)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.SandboxContinuable.access$101(SandboxContinuable.java:34)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.SandboxContinuable.lambda$run0$0(SandboxContinuable.java:59)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.GroovySandbox.runInSandbox(GroovySandbox.java:108)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.SandboxContinuable.run0(SandboxContinuable.java:58)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsThread.runNextChunk(CpsThread.java:174)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsThreadGroup.run(CpsThreadGroup.java:332)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsThreadGroup.access$200(CpsThreadGroup.java:83)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsThreadGroup$2.call(CpsThreadGroup.java:244)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsThreadGroup$2.call(CpsThreadGroup.java:232)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsVmExecutorService$2.call(CpsVmExecutorService.java:64)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at hudson.remoting.SingleLaneExecutorService$1.run(SingleLaneExecutorService.java:131)
at jenkins.util.ContextResettingExecutorService$1.run(ContextResettingExecutorService.java:28)
at jenkins.security.ImpersonatingExecutorService$1.run(ImpersonatingExecutorService.java:59)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Finished: FAILURE

Answer 1

Jenkins Pipeline provides writeFile step that can be used to write a file inside job's workspace.

Take a look at following example:

node {
    writeFile file: 'groovy1.txt', text: 'Working with files the Groovy way is easy.'
    sh 'ls -l groovy1.txt'
    sh 'cat groovy1.txt'
}

Running this pipeline scripts generates following output:

[Pipeline] node
Running on Jenkins in /var/jenkins_home/workspace/test-pipeline
[Pipeline] {
[Pipeline] writeFile
[Pipeline] sh
[test-pipeline] Running shell script
+ ls -l groovy1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 jenkins jenkins 42 Jul  8 16:38 groovy1.txt
[Pipeline] sh
[test-pipeline] Running shell script
+ cat groovy1.txt
Working with files the Groovy way is easy.[Pipeline] }
[Pipeline] // node
[Pipeline] End of Pipeline
Finished: SUCCESS

Using Java File

As Jon S mentioned in the comment, Java new File("${env.WORKSPACE}/groovy1.txt") will work only if your node step is executed on master node - if it gets executed on slave node then your pipeline code will fail. You can check following Stack Overflow thread for more information:

In jenkins job, create file using system groovy in current workspace