How do I get pipeline logs from failed steps that have retries enabled?

[Austin Hill]

I have a few steps in my pipeline where I've enabled retries.  These steps are exhibiting flaky behavior and I need to see what is going on in the initial failure, and some of the non-final failures.  (ie. not the final retry) I can download the logs of the final retry, but cannot figure out how to get access to the previous runs of the step.  Is it possible? If so, how? Thanks!

[Theodora Boudale · Accepted solution]

Hi @Austin Hill and welcome to the community!

It is possible to check the logs of previous runs of a failed step. You can check this blogpost for more details:

• https://www.atlassian.com/blog/bitbucket/quickly-diagnose-issues-by-viewing-previous-pipeline-runs

You will need to select the Runs option while viewing a certain pipeline and then you will see a dropdown with the list of previous reruns to select from. In the blog post, there is a screenshot showing where the Runs option is located.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Kind regards,
Theodora

[Austin Hill]

Thanks for the information. However, this is only useful for re-run pipelines, not steps. What I'm looking for is circumstances when Step retries are configured. I cannot debug flaky steps without logs. 🤷‍♂️. This lack of data makes retries fairly useless. 

[Theodora Boudale]

Hi Austin,

I think I misunderstood what you mean by retries. The feature I shared is available for a failed step that was manually rerun by the user.

Can you please clarify if your step has a config to be automatically retried on failure, like the following?

on-fail:
  strategy: retry
  maxRetryCount: 2 

Please feel free to let me know, and I can create a feature request for our development team to consider.

Kind regards,
Theodora

[Austin Hill]

Yes, it does. I should have clarified 😄 I've been so deep in my team's pipeline work that I forgot there are multiple meanings.  In my particular pipelines, I've got a series of steps with the on-fail strategy set to retry.  For context, on the last failed retry I tear down an ephemeral Kubernetes cluster where the testing is occurring.  This different behavior on the last step, combined with the inability to see the logs from previous steps, means I can't debug that flaky behavior.  

[Theodora Boudale]

Thank you for the clarification and for sharing your use case, Austin. I'm afraid that there is no way to see logs from previous retries at this moment. I created a feature request for our product managers to consider:

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-23814

Please make sure you add your vote to that feature request (by selecting the link Vote for this issue) to increase the chances of this being implemented. You are more than welcome to leave feedback, and you can also add yourself as a watcher (by selecting the link Start watching this issue) if you'd like to be notified via email on updates.

I'm afraid I cannot provide an ETA, implementation of new features is done as per our policy here and any updates will be posted in the feature request.

In the meantime, the only workaround I can think of is removing the config for retries and rerun a failed step manually (the Rerun option in a pipeline allows you to rerun only failed steps, instead of the whole pipeline). I understand that this is not ideal, but it's the only way of seeing the logs for all reruns at the moment.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Theodora

[Austin Hill]

Thank you! I'll vote on that feature request. I understand about ETA and new features...this is software development 😄

[Jin Cho]

Hi @Austin Hill,

Currently, we don't support this functionality, but you can vote for and track the feature request here.

Thanks! Jin

[Austin Hill]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand how to vote for the feature on a closed Jira ticket. Am I missing something? I thumbs upped a comment, but I don't see anything else to do here. 

[Jin Cho]

Hi @Austin Hill Sorry, I was reading some outdated information. It looks like the feature has already shipped according to the ticket. Check out this article

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/bitbucket/quickly-diagnose-issues-by-viewing-previous-pipeline-runs