include downstream/child Jenkins job's console output into triggering job's console output

Question

2 Jenkins jobs: A and B.

A triggers B as blocking build step ("Block until the triggered projects finish their builds"). Is there a way to include B's console output into A's console output?

Motivation: for browser use of Jenkins A's console output contains a link to B's console output which is fine. But when using Jenkins via command line tools (jenkins-cli) there's no quick and easy way to see B's console output.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Interesting. I'd try something like this.

From http://jenkinsurl/job/jobname/lastBuild/api/

Accessing Progressive Console Output
You can retrieve in-progress console output by making repeated GET requests with a parameter. You'll basically send GET request to this URL (or this URL if you want HTML that can be put into tag.) The start parameter controls the byte offset of where you start.

The response will contain a chunk of the console output, as well as the X-Text-Size header that represents the bytes offset (of the raw log file). This is the number you want to use as the start parameter for the next call.

If the response also contains the X-More-Data: true header, the server is indicating that the build is in progress, and you need to repeat the request after some delay. The Jenkins UI waits 5 seconds before making the next call. When this header is not present, you know that you've retrieved all the data and the build is complete.

So you can trigger a downstream job, but don't "block until downstream completes". Instead, add an extra step (execute shell, probably) and write a script that will read the console output of the other job as indicated above, and display it in console output of current job. You will have to detect when the child job finished by looking for X-More-Data: true header, as detailed above.