Cannot install plugins even with jenkins-version flag specified

[MarkEWaite (Mark Waite)]

@brsolomon-deloitte

A Dockerfile.old to reproduce this:

FROM jenkins/jenkins:2.346.3-lts-jdk8

ENV JENKINS_VERSION=2.346.3
RUN set -eux \
    && jenkins-plugin-cli \
        --jenkins-version 2.346.3 \
        --verbose \
        --plugins \
            ws-cleanup:0.43 \
            htmlpublisher:1.31

Shown above are the current versions of two plugins in use by our actual Jenkins controller - so we expect them to successfully install for a Jenkins image using the same base image with same plugin versions. This is key in our ability to test and experiment with the upgrade.

docker build -f Dockerfile.old -t old-jenkins .

How can we succesfully install (any) plugins into the 2.346.3-lts-jdk8 image?

Your technique is a very good technique, but it needs a further refinement.

Jenkins 2.346.3 is two years old. The Jenkins update center provides plugin version support information for Jenkins releases from the last 12 months. The update center documentation says:

Jenkins weekly and LTS releases up to a year old are supported; anything older will receive update metadata for the oldest supported releases.

Based on that, your container image that represents the current state of your Jenkins controller needs a definition of all the plugins to install and their versions. You can generate that list from “Manage Jenkins” → “Script Console” with the script that is available in “How to report an issue”. That script is:

Jenkins.instance.pluginManager.plugins
    .collect()
    .sort { it.getShortName() }
    .each {
        plugin -> println("${plugin.getShortName()}:${plugin.getVersion()}")
    }
return

The output of that script can be used in a plugins.txt file or you can list the plugin names and versions on the command line as you’ve done in your example. Refer to “Preinstalling plugins” in the container documentation for more details.