Steps
Steps are the most fundamental building blocks of an Azure DevOps pipeline. Each step represents a single action to be performed during the execution of a job. When you define a pipeline with steps and without explicitly defining jobs, Azure DevOps will create an implicit job to contain those steps.
Step Schema
steps: [ task | script | powershell | pwsh | bash | checkout | download | downloadBuild | getPackage | publish | template | reviewApp ] # Required. A list of steps to run in this job.
strategy: strategy # Execution strategy for this job.
continueOnError: string # Continue running even on failure?
pool: string | pool # Pool where jobs in this pipeline will run unless otherwise specified.
container: string | container # Container resource name.
services: # Container resources to run as a service container.
string: string # Name/value pairs
workspace: # Workspace options on the agent.
clean: string # Which parts of the workspace should be scorched before fetching.
name: string # Pipeline run number.
appendCommitMessageToRunName: boolean # Append the commit message to the build number. The default is true.
trigger: none | trigger | [ string ] # Continuous integration triggers.
parameters: [ parameter ] # Pipeline template parameters.
pr: none | pr | [ string ] # Pull request triggers.
schedules: [ cron ] # Scheduled triggers.
resources: # Containers and repositories used in the build.
builds: [ build ] # List of build resources referenced by the pipeline.
containers: [ container ] # List of container images.
pipelines: [ pipeline ] # List of pipeline resources.
repositories: [ repository ] # List of repository resources.
webhooks: [ webhook ] # List of webhooks.
packages: [ package ] # List of package resources.
variables: variables | [ variable ] # Variables for this pipeline.
lockBehavior: string # Behavior lock requests from this stage should exhibit in relation to other exclusive lock requests.Step Types
Azure DevOps Pipelines supports several types of steps:
Task
A task is a pre-packaged script that performs a specific action. Azure DevOps provides many built-in tasks, and you can also use tasks from the marketplace.
- task: TaskName@version
displayName: 'Human-readable step name'
inputs:
param1: value1
param2: value2Script
A script step runs a command-line script using cmd.exe on Windows and sh on other platforms.
- script: echo Hello, world!
displayName: 'Say hello'PowerShell
A PowerShell step runs a script using PowerShell on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- powershell: |
Write-Host "Hello from PowerShell"
$PSVersionTable
displayName: 'Run PowerShell'Bash
A bash step runs a script using Bash on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- bash: |
echo "Hello from Bash"
echo "Current directory: $(pwd)"
displayName: 'Run Bash commands'Checkout
The checkout step is used to check out source code from a repository.
- checkout: self # self represents the repo where the pipeline is defined
clean: true # whether to fetch clean each time
fetchDepth: 1 # the depth of commits to ask Git to fetchDownload
The download step downloads artifacts from the current or another pipeline run.
- download: current # refers to artifacts published by current pipeline
artifact: WebApp # name of the artifact to download
path: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/WebApp # download pathPublish
The publish step publishes (uploads) a file or folder as a pipeline artifact.
- publish: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/WebApp
artifact: WebApp
displayName: 'Publish WebApp artifact'Template
The template step includes steps from a template file.
- template: steps/build.yml # Template reference
parameters:
buildConfiguration: 'Release'Step Properties
Common properties that can be applied to steps include:
displayName
A friendly name displayed in the Azure DevOps UI.
- script: echo Hello
displayName: 'Say Hello'name
A reference name used in expressions.
- script: echo "Setting variable"
name: setVariablecondition
A condition that determines whether the step should run.
- script: echo "This only runs if the previous step succeeded"
condition: succeeded()continueOnError
Whether to continue running more steps even if this step fails.
- script: exit 1
continueOnError: true
displayName: 'This step will fail but pipeline continues'env
Environment variables to set for the step.
- script: echo "Using environment variable: $GREETING"
env:
GREETING: Hello, world!timeoutInMinutes
The maximum time a step should run before it is canceled.
- script: sleep 300 # Run for 5 minutes
timeoutInMinutes: 6
displayName: 'Step with timeout'workingDirectory
The working directory for the step.
- script: ls -la
workingDirectory: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/src
displayName: 'List files in src directory'Examples
Basic Pipeline with Steps
trigger:
- main
pool:
vmImage: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- script: echo "Hello world!"
displayName: 'Print greeting'Multiple Step Types
trigger:
- main
pool:
vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
steps:
- checkout: self
- bash: |
echo "Current directory: $(pwd)"
echo "Repository files:"
ls -la
displayName: 'List files'
- task: UseDotNet@2
displayName: 'Install .NET Core SDK'
inputs:
packageType: 'sdk'
version: '6.0.x'
- script: |
dotnet restore
dotnet build --configuration Release
displayName: 'Build the application'
workingDirectory: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/src
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
displayName: 'Run unit tests'
inputs:
command: 'test'
projects: '**/*Tests/*.csproj'
arguments: '--configuration Release'Conditional Step Execution
steps:
- script: echo "This always runs"
displayName: 'Always run'
- script: echo "This runs only on main branch"
displayName: 'Main branch only'
condition: eq(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/main')
- script: echo "This runs only on feature branches"
displayName: 'Feature branch only'
condition: startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/feature/')
- script: echo "This runs only if all previous steps succeeded"
displayName: 'Run if all succeeded'
condition: succeeded()
- script: echo "This runs even if previous steps failed"
displayName: 'Run even on failure'
condition: always()Using Output Variables
steps:
- bash: |
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=myOutputVar;isOutput=true]some value"
name: setVarStep
displayName: 'Set output variable'
- bash: |
echo "The output variable is: $(setVarStep.myOutputVar)"
displayName: 'Use output variable'
condition: succeeded()Step Templates
# azure-pipelines.yml
steps:
- template: templates/build-steps.yml
parameters:
buildConfiguration: 'Release'
# templates/build-steps.yml
parameters:
buildConfiguration: 'Debug'
steps:
- script: dotnet build --configuration ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }}
displayName: 'Build with ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }} configuration'Advanced Container Example
pool:
vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
container:
image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:6.0
options: '--name ci-container -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock'
steps:
- script: |
dotnet --version
dotnet build
dotnet test
displayName: 'Build and test'Best Practices for Steps
Use descriptive displayNames: Give each step a clear, descriptive name to make pipeline logs easier to read.
Group related commands: Use multi-line scripts for related commands rather than multiple separate script steps.
Set timeouts: For steps that might hang, set timeoutInMinutes to prevent the pipeline from waiting indefinitely.
Handle errors appropriately: Use continueOnError for non-critical steps where failures shouldn't stop the pipeline.
Use conditions effectively: Apply conditions to skip unnecessary steps based on branch name, previous results, etc.
Use step templates for reusability: Extract common sequences of steps into templates to avoid repetition.
Leverage built-in expressions: Use Azure Pipelines expressions like succeeded(), failed(), always() for conditional execution.
Manage working directories: Set the appropriate workingDirectory for each step rather than using cd commands.
Be mindful of step order: Arrange steps in a logical order of dependency to ensure proper execution flow.
Publish artifacts: Always publish important build artifacts to make them available to later stages and for troubleshooting.
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