# Jenkins deletes the workspace even when not checked **URL:** \ **Category:** Using Jenkins\ **Created:** [December 29, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141 "2021-12-29T16:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/1 "2021-12-29T16:58:39Z")
I have a site that I’m deploying via Jenkins and due to the large number of images that’s part of the site, I’ve not checked the ‘Delete Workspace’ checkbox. However upon review, it appears even unchecked, the workspace is deleted. It takes about 20 minutes to rsync the image files into the workspace even though there are only a few new images to be added. Is there something I’m not understanding both in the delete workspace space or a better way of integrating binary files into a project which is then sync’d with the remote live site. Thanks! Carl ---
**Author:** ![halkeye](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.jenkins.io/halkeye/32/8_2.png) [@halkeye](https://community.jenkins.io/u/halkeye)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 11:50pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/2 "2021-12-29T23:50:45Z")
Can you go into how your testing your assumptions/came to your conclusion? It actually takes lot of effort to delete workspaces, but it may be spinning up a new one. ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 5:05am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/3 "2021-12-30T05:05:51Z")
Sure. I logged into the Jenkins worker and ran a while true; do ls; sleep 3; done and ran the Jenkins job. I watched as the files and directories were deleted over the course of a few refreshes, then the directory structure and files were recreated. I did enable ‘Delete Workspace’ and watch and all the files were deleted immediately, it didn’t take any time unlike when it was unchecked. Someone on reddit suggested deleting the plugin which might solve my issue but certainly not the general issue of the delete and recreate. For a majority of my projects, a delete and recreate is a non issue. But this is a pretty large photo site and it’s taking 20 minutes to run. Carl ---
**Author:** ![halkeye](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.jenkins.io/halkeye/32/8_2.png) [@halkeye](https://community.jenkins.io/u/halkeye)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/4 "2021-12-30T05:18:32Z")
> [@cschelin](#): > > Sure. I logged into the Jenkins worker and ran a while true; do ls; sleep 3; done and ran the Jenkins job. I watched as the files and directories were deleted over the course of a few refreshes, then the directory structure and files were recreated. do you remember the path relative to $JENKINS\_HOME that was deleted? if it ended in @tmp or @2 it probably won’t last long. Are you talking about the files in $JOB/workspace or something else? ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 5:36am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/5 "2021-12-30T05:36:45Z")
I was in /var/lib/jenkins/workspaces/photos. Not any of the @ directories. ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/6 "2021-12-30T23:33:13Z")
Okay, I’ve deleted the Workspace Cleanup plugin however a rebuild of the project as noted in the output below has deleted the workspace directory entirely and then started adding it back in again, so again, a 20 minute process to build the directory structure and incorporate the binaries before syncing the directory with the local site. ```auto ============================================== 1957 20040725 20050409 20060127 20061026 20070609 20070818 20090420 20120520 admin functions minifunc.php tag.cloud.php 1958 20040727 20050514 20060318 20061226 20070610 20071207 20090621 2013 android.css gallery.php mininew.php tag.toggle.php 1959 20040814 20050526 20060506 20061228 20070623 20071211 20090625 2014 apple.css gifshow.php mobile.php tag.view.php 1960 20040820 20050611 20060527 20061230 20070630 2008 20090720 2015 confooter.php header.php planning topmenu.end.php 2000 20040912 20050621 20060610 2007 20070701 20080302 20090808 2016 css imgs pngshow.php topmenu.start.php 2001 20040925 20050811 20060714 20070304 20070707 20080410 2010 2017 docs index.php robots.txt weight 2002 20041106 20050820 20060727 20070311 20070714 20080416 20100417 2018 dominator jpegshow.php routes years.php 20021215 20041203 20050904 20060730 20070317 20070715 20080608 2011 2019 favicon.gif jpgshow.php show.php 2003 2005 20051001 20060819 20070525 20070722 20080620 20110406 2020 favicon.ico login site.css 20030808 20050123 20051015 20060924 20070526 20070729 20080920 20110725 2021 footer.php maintenance states 2004 20050226 2006 20061018 20070527 20070811 2009 2012 account.php function.php menu.css stuff ============================================== ============================================== 20051001 20070729 20100417 admin footer.php header.php maintenance planning tag.toggle.php years.php 20060610 20080620 20110406 android.css function.php index.php menu.css pngshow.php tag.view.php 20060924 20080920 20110725 apple.css functions jpegshow.php minifunc.php show.php topmenu.end.php 20070317 20090720 20120520 confooter.php gallery.php jpgshow.php mininew.php site.css topmenu.start.php 20070722 20090808 account.php css gifshow.php login mobile.php tag.cloud.php weight ============================================== ``` ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/7 "2022-01-04T15:23:41Z")
So, out of luck then I guess. It just takes 20 minutes to update a site because Jenkins for some unknown reason deletes the workspace. I wonder why there’s a ‘Workspace Cleanup’ plugin then. ---
**Author:** ![danielbeck](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.jenkins.io/danielbeck/32/89_2.png) [@danielbeck](https://community.jenkins.io/u/danielbeck)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/8 "2022-01-04T19:58:53Z")
While files are being deleted, follow instructions from [Obtaining a thread dump](https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/system-administration/obtaining-a-thread-dump/) and post the output somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/9 "2022-01-04T22:38:47Z")
Thank you. Will follow the instructions and make it available. ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/10 "2022-01-05T20:55:06Z")
I’ve captured the threaddump output and stored it here: [https://schelin.s3.amazonaws.com/jenkins.threaddump](https://schelin.s3.amazonaws.com/jenkins.threaddump) Carl ---
**Author:** ![danielbeck](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.jenkins.io/danielbeck/32/89_2.png) [@danielbeck](https://community.jenkins.io/u/danielbeck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/11 "2022-01-05T22:49:39Z")
At the time the thread dump was taken, a single build is executing and it’s running some sort of script (shell/Batch/…). If this really is when things get deleted, review your job configuration and build script. To narrow it down further, we’d need a thread dump from the agent process. ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/12 "2022-01-05T23:56:05Z")
After the git repo is pulled from gitlab, I run a few shell commands to merge in the items that aren’t in the git repo, images being the main thing. The process would be: 1. Jenkins sees a change in gitlab/the job is run manually and the repo is put into the WORKSPACE directory. 2. The shell command merges in the /css directory structure using rsync. 3. The shell command merges in the images using rsync. 4. The .git directory and a few files are removed. 5. The final WORKSPACE is rsync’d with the remote websites. The deletion appears to occur before step 1 as all the files from the git repo are in the final WORKSPACE. Should I have two browser tabs open, one with the threaddump open and then on the first one, kick off the job? And I do appreciate the help. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![MarkEWaite](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.jenkins.io/markewaite/32/20_2.png) [@MarkEWaite](https://community.jenkins.io/u/MarkEWaite)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/13 "2022-01-27T19:24:45Z")
I suspect that step 4 is causing the problem in combination with [JENKINS-22795](https://issues.jenkins.io/browse/JENKINS-22795) > [@cschelin](#): > > 1. The .git directory and a few files are removed. By performing step 4, you are assuming that the git plugin will repopulate the `.git` directory without harming the rest of the repository. There were cases in early use of the git plugin where the failure to empty a directory before a fresh clone would cause problems that were very difficult to diagnose. By removing the `.git` directory, you’ve caused the git plugin to believe that it must perform a fresh clone. A fresh clone in the git plugin assumes that it has full control of the workspace and empties the workspace so that the initial git clone has the best chance of success. By removing the `.git` directory, you’re also assuring that the next run will need to repopulate that directory. Since it contains a complete copy of the history of the repository, that should generally be avoided. Don’t remove the `.git` directory. Configure your `rsync` command to ignore the `.git` directory and its contents. > ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/14 "2022-01-27T19:46:14Z")
That’s an idea. I’m using a similar process with gitlab-ci and it deletes the working directory again as well. One of the folks on my team recommended an entirely different directory with the artifacts as well. I’ve used rsync with exclude before for other purposes. I’ll give that a try, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![cschelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@cschelin](https://community.jenkins.io/u/cschelin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/jenkins-deletes-the-workspace-even-when-not-checked/1141/15 "2022-01-31T15:25:10Z")
That appears to be the solution. I added the exclude to the rsync and didn’t delete the .git directory and it doesn’t delete the directory any more. Oddly a second exclude or a {} exclude or even an exclude-from doesn’t exclude the .gitlab-ci.yml file from copied. I’ve used exclude-from to not copy several files over in other situations without issue so this is a bit odd. I’ll puzzle it out though. Thanks @MarkEWaite