Conditional dependent job in Azure Devops YAML pipelines

Question

I'm building a complex pipeline in yaml and I'm trying to create a dependency between two jobs such that the latter job runs after the former, but only if the former is set to run based on a parameter. I can't seem to wrap my head around whether this is doable or not.

I have a pipeline defined like this:

parameters:
- name: doJobA
  type: boolean

stages:
  jobs:
  - job: JobA
    condition: eq('${{ parameters.doJobA }}', true)
    # ... details removed for brevity

  - job: JobB
    dependsOn: JobA
    # ... details removed for brevity

JobB should run after JobA if parameters.doJobA is true, or immediately if parameters.doJobA is false. Simply adding the dependsOn condition causes JobB to be skipped if the JobA condition is not met which makes sense, but I'd like it to run regardless.

Is it possible to define a conditional dependsOn in this manner?

EDIT: I've run into an additional problem with this that renders the solution below unusable. I need the condition to depend upon a variable set by an earlier running PowerShell script and not based on parameters.

Answer 1

Simpler solution from https://elanderson.net/2020/05/azure-devops-pipelines-depends-on-with-conditionals-in-yaml/

parameters:
- name: doJobA
  type: boolean

stages:
  jobs:
  - job: JobA
    condition: eq('${{ parameters.doJobA }}', true)
    # ... details removed for brevity

  - job: JobB
    dependsOn: JobA
    condition: in(dependencies.JobA.result, 'Succeeded', 'Skipped')
    # ... details removed for brevity

Answer 2

Here is the code sample I came up with (you can see the example). Job 2 is always run, and is run after Job 1 if Job 1 runs.

updated YAML

- job: One
  condition: eq('${{ parameters.DoJobOne }}', true)
  pool:
    vmImage: 'windows-2019'
  steps:
  - powershell: |
      throw "simulate Job One failing"
      echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=JobOneRan;isOutput=true]true"
    name: setvarStep
  - script: |
      echo $(setvarStep.JobOneRan)          
    name: echovariable


- job: Two
  condition: and(always(), eq('${{ parameters.DoJobOne }}', eq(dependencies.One.outputs['setvarStep.JobOneRan'], true)))
  dependsOn: One
  pool:
    vmImage: 'windows-2019'
  variables:
    myVariableFromJobOne: $[ dependencies.One.outputs['setvarStep.JobOneRan'] ]
  steps:
  - script: echo $(myVariableFromJobOne)
    name: echovariable

Hope that helps.

Wes

Answer 3

I've found a slightly inelegant solution. By combining expressions with boolean parameters I'm able to do what I need, but it is a bit tricky:

parameters:
- name: doJobA
  type: boolean

stages:
  jobs:
  - job: JobA
    condition: eq('${{ parameters.doJobA }}', true)
    # ... details removed for brevity

  - job: JobB
    ${{ if eq(parameters.doJobA, true) }}:
      dependsOn: JobA
      condition: succeeded()
    # ... details removed for brevity

Here I insert a dependent clause only if the parameter doJobA is true. Otherwise it is not present. In order to ensure that JobB only runs if JobA succeeds I must also add a condition, but only if dependsOn is present.

The result is that the job runs immediately if doJobA is false because the resulting yaml will not contain any dependsOn or condition entries, but in the other case it will depend on the successful execution of JobA.

I'm still hoping there is a better way to achieve this though as this seems a bit complex (imo).

Edit: This solution only works for static properties and not dynamic variables.