Passing Command Output as Command Parameter

Build Environment
1

Is it possible to use the output from a shell command as the input for a CircleCI command?

EG, something like this:

commands:
  build-package:
    description: "Build package"
    parameters:
      version:
        type: string
    steps:
      - run: ./build << parameters.version >>

jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      build-package:
        version: $(./version.sh)
2

I don’t think directly, since the config is compiled before the job runs.

The community is pretty creative though, let’s see if anyone has come up with a workaround.

If not, this would be a good feature request for https://ideas.circleci.com

3

Hmm… I just ran into this exact issue. Bummer to hear it’s not supported. Would storing the result in a variable and then passing that to the parameter work? Or does that run into the same issue?

@apeschel Did you ever figure out a workaround? Did you make an idea for it? I can’t find it to add my vote.

4

@drazisil Are the steps in commands fixed as well? I tried moving the output to be directly a part of the command but it’s still not interpreting it:

      - run: gcloud app deploy --quiet -v "v$(php artisan app:version --plain)" <<# parameters.no-promote >> --no-promote <</ parameters.no-promote >>

This gets run literally as:

gcloud app deploy --quiet -v "v$(php artisan app:version --plain)"
5

Your best bet here is probably to populate an env var or use a workspace and pass the name of that variable or workspace path to the next command.

6

Thanks @ndintenfass!

Turns out my particular issue was actually a the gcloud command not wanting periods in the version (I mean, periods in a version, how crazy is that?).

It would still be very cool to be able to pass output as a parameter!