Last Changes

The simplest way to know what has changed on your Jenkins builds!

Last Changes is a Jenkin plugin that shows rich VCS diffs between builds.

Table of Contents

The plugin uses diff2html to show last changes of a given build, example:

Or using side-by-side configuration:

The main objective of this plugin is to have fast access to what has changed on a Jenkins build.

Another interesting aspect is that it can easily help to find the root cause of a failing build by highlighting what has changed.

And finally the plugin shines in a continuous delivery environment, where each commit generates a release candidate.

1. This plugin expects .git or .svn folders present on your build workspace and will use it to retrieve repository information .

2. While your job runs the plugin reads your build workspace to retrieve the current VCS revision;

3. The diff between actual and a previous revision will be stored; Note that the previous revision can be:

   • A provided revision id;

   • Revision of Last successful build;

   • Revision of an specific build;

   • Revision of Last tag;

     ℹ️	By default previous revision is current revision -1.

     💡	You can use parameters in specificRevision parameter. In case of git, expressions like HEAD^{tree} or HEAD^^ can be used.

4. The diff for each build can be viewed later in html format.

After installation just activate the post build action named Publish Last Changes.

1. Activate build action

   

2. Last changes menu should be available

   

3. Build changes history

   

4. Last changes menu is available for builds that published changes

   

The setup is done via build configuration:

The possible values for Since attribute is Previous revision (the default), Last successful build and Last tag.

Advanced configuration reflects diff2html options:

Following is an example of pipeline step using this plugin:

You can also download the diff as DIFF or HTML. The download links are on the bottom right corner of the page:

Using email ext plugin and Pipeline scripting we can send the diff as an email attachment, see example below:

1. Diff in plain text

   pipeline {
       agent any
       stages {
           stage('Checkout') {
               steps {
                   git url: 'https://github.com/jenkinsci/last-changes-plugin'
               }
           }
           stage("send diff") {
               steps {
                   script {
                       def publisher = LastChanges.getLastChangesPublisher null, "SIDE", "LINE", true, true, "", "", "", "", ""
                       publisher.publishLastChanges()
                       def diff = publisher.getDiff()
                       writeFile file: 'build.diff', text: diff
                       emailext (
                         subject: "Jenkins - changes of ${env.JOB_NAME} #${env.BUILD_NUMBER}",
                         attachmentsPattern: '**/*.diff',
                         mimeType: 'text/html',
                         body: """<p>See attached diff of <b>${env.JOB_NAME} #${env.BUILD_NUMBER}</b>.</p>
                           <p>Check build changes on Jenkins <b><a href="${env.BUILD_URL}/last-changes">here</a></b>.</p>""",
                         to: "YOUR-EMAIL@gmail.com"
                       )
   
                  }
   
               }
           }
       }
   }

2. Diff in Html format

   pipeline {
       agent any
       stages {
           stage('Send html diff') {
               steps {
                   git 'https://github.com/jenkinsci/last-changes-plugin.git'
                   script {
                     def publisher = LastChanges.getLastChangesPublisher "PREVIOUS_REVISION", "SIDE", "LINE", true, true, "", "", "", "", ""
                     publisher.publishLastChanges()
                     def htmlDiff = publisher.getHtmlDiff()
                     writeFile file: 'build-diff.html', text: htmlDiff
                       emailext (
                         subject: "Jenkins - changes of ${env.JOB_NAME} #${env.BUILD_NUMBER}",
                         attachmentsPattern: '**/*build-diff.html',
                         mimeType: 'text/html',
                         body: """<p>See attached diff of build <b>${env.JOB_NAME} #${env.BUILD_NUMBER}</b>.</p>
                           <p>Check build changes on Jenkins <b><a href="${env.BUILD_URL}/last-changes">here</a></b>.</p>""",
                         to: "YOUR-EMAIL@gmail.com" )
                   } //end script
               }
           }
       }
   }

An easy way to test this plugin is using a docker container, here are the steps (assuming you have docker installed):

1. Run the image:

   docker run -it -p 8080:8080 rmpestano/jenkins-last-changes

2. Access localhost:8080/ and create a job

3. Configure this svn repository: https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/cucumber-json-files/trunk/

4. Add the Publish last changes post build action;

5. Just run the job

Job output should look like:

Following are the steps to run, debug and test this plugin on your machine:

1. Clone this repository

   git clone http://github.com/jenkinsci/last-changes-plugin

2. Import it on your IDE

3. Run the command mvnDebug hpi:run -DskipTests

4. Configure the remote debugging on your IDE to use port 8000, as in image below:

   

5. Access http://localhost:8080/jenkins

Now create jobs using last-changes and debug them.

For testing run any class on src/test/java folder as JUnit test.

See contributors guide.

Please follow releases page for details of each release.