Bamboo variables

Variables can be used to make values available when building plans in Bamboo.

• Build-specific variables are evaluated by Bamboo dynamically at build time. The source of a build-specific variable can either be a Bamboo property or one of the default plugins (assuming it is enabled).
• Deployment variables are available when deploying a project. 
• System variables also apply across your entire Bamboo instance and inherit their values from system or environment variables of the same name.
• Global variables are defined across your entire Bamboo instance and have the same (static) value for every plan that is built by Bamboo. See Defining global variables.
• Plan variables are similar to global variables but are defined for specific plans. Plan variables override global variables with the same name. You can also override a plan variable for a build if you trigger the build manually. See Defining plan variables.

Use variables

Variables can be used in all fields of a task or deployment, with the exception of password fields. Use the following format when referencing a variable:

${bamboo.variableName}

You can override a plan variable for a build if you trigger the build manually. See Triggering a plan build manually.

You can reference a variable from another variable. For example, consider having the following variables:

• var1 = Hello

• var2 = world
  

You can create another variable that references the two other ones.
GREET

${bamboo.var1} ${bamboo.var2}! 

Bamboo will resolve the variable as Hello World!

You can:

• Reference a global or context-specific variable in a build plan or deployment project
• Reference a variable that references another one. Deep recursion is allowed.

There are a couple of limitations:

• Referencing a variable that is not defined is an error. The whole build or the deployment will fail if you reference such a variable.
• Cycles are not allowed and are considered a build or deployment project error.

Define custom variables

You can define your own custom variables using a format similar to the one above. However, you cannot create a variable name that is already in use by Bamboo.

For information on how to define your own variables in Bamboo, see the following Atlassian articles:

• Defining global variables
• Defining plan variables
• Defining deployment environment variables

Build-specific variables

The following build-specific variables are available by default:

• System variables apply across your entire Bamboo instance and inherit their values from the system or environment variables of the same name.
• In the variable names from the table, <position> is an optional parameter that specifies the position of the repository in the plan's repository list. If omitted, the first repository in the list is used.
• Third-party repository plugins can expose their own variables.

• System variables also apply across your entire Bamboo instance and inherit their values from the system or environment variables of the same name.
• In the variable names from the table above, <position> is an optional parameter that specifies the position of the repository in the plan's repository list. If omitted, the first repository in the list is used.
• Third-party repository plugins can expose their own variables.

Build dependency variables

The following build dependency variables are also available:

Deployment variables

Bamboo manages a number of standard reserved variables that are available when deploying a project. 

Variables later in the following list override the previous ones in case of repeating names:

• Global variables
• Release variables as defined below
• User variables defined at the environment level
• The autogenerated variables in the following table:

You can generate variables of your own, using a similar format. However, you cannot create a variable that is already in use by Bamboo. See Defining deployment environment variables for more information.

Releases variables

Bamboo makes the following types of variables available for deployment releases:

• Snapshots of values for global variables
• Snapshots of values for plan variables
• Snapshots of values of repository variables
• The autogenerated release variables in the following table:

System variables

The usage format for all system variables is:

${system.<variable>}

For example, if you have a system variable  MYPATH=C:\MyPath; you can use a Bamboo system variable  system.MYPATH, which will inherit the same value as the system variable.

Variables in bash

Bamboo variables are exported as bash shell variables. All full stops (periods) are converted to underscores. For example, the variable bamboo.my.variable is $bamboo_my_variable in bash. This is related to File Script tasks (not Inline Script tasks).

Jira application variables

Examples

Maven examples

For example, you may want your Maven 2 version to be determined by Bamboo. In the Maven 2 pom.xml, you may have:

...
<groupId>com.atlassian.boo</groupId>
<artifactId>boo-test</artifactId>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<version>1.1.${bambooBuildNumber}-SNAPSHOT</version>
...

You can then specify the following in the Goal field of your build plan:

clean package -DbambooBuildNumber=${bamboo.buildNumber}

When the command runs, Bamboo will replace the buildNumber with the actual number (e.g. 1102), which will be passed to the underlying Maven build to use. The command will then produce a jar that looks like this: boo-test-1.1.1102-SNAPSHOT.jar.

Ant examples

You can then specify the following in the Target field of your build plan:

-f build.xml -DbambooBuildNumber=${bamboo.buildNumber}

When the command runs, Bamboo will replace the buildNumber with the actual number (such as 1102), which will be passed to the underlying Ant build to use.

Specify capabilities as variables

You can also specify a capability to be used in a similar way to a global variable.

The format of the capability should be as follows:

${bamboo.capability.<capability_key>}

For example,

• Custom

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  ${bamboo.capability.<capability_key>}

• JDK

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  ${bamboo.capability.system.jdk.<jdk_label>}

• Builder

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  ${bamboo.capability.system.builder.<builder_type>.<builder_label>}
  e.g. ${bamboo.capability.system.builder.maven.Maven1}

• Perforce

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  ${bamboo.capability.system.p4Executable}

If you click a capability, the specific capability key is contained in the URL.

Use capabilities

Global and Build-Specific Variables can be used in specific fields of your build plan. For capabilities:

• System Capabilities are available to all of these fields (that is global and build-specific).
• Agent Capabilities (that is agent-specific and shared/server capabilities) are available only to the build-specific fields (that is not available to Repository URL, CVS Root or Branch name.)

For example, if you wanted to specify a system variable but have it set to different values on each agent, do the following:

• Set the following as a system environment variable field on the Builder tab:
  ${bamboo.capability.thatsystemvariable}

• Specify the system environment variable as a custom capability on each of your agents and set the capability to the different values, as desired.

Deprecated variables

The following variables are deprecated and are subject for removal in future Bamboo releases: