Jenkins pipeline: agent vs node?

by

The simple answer is, Agent is for declarative pipelines and node is for scripted pipelines.

In declarative pipelines the agent directive is used for specifying which agent/slave the job/task is to be executed on. This directive only allows you to specify where the task is to be executed, which agent, slave, label or docker image.

On the other hand, in scripted pipelines the node step can be used for executing a script/step on a specific agent, label, slave. The node step optionally takes the agent or label name and then a closure with code that is to be executed on that node.

declarative and scripted pipelines (edit based on the comment):

  • declarative pipelines is a new extension of the pipeline DSL (it is basically a pipeline script with only one step, a pipeline step with arguments (called directives), these directives should follow a specific syntax. The point of this new format is that it is more strict and therefore should be easier for those new to pipelines, allow for graphical editing and much more.
  • scripted pipelines is the fallback for advanced requirements.

More Related Contents:

  1. How can I trigger another job from a jenkins pipeline (jenkinsfile) with GitHub Org Plugin?
  2. Show a Jenkins pipeline stage as failed without failing the whole job
  3. Is it possible to create parallel Jenkins Declarative Pipeline stages in a loop?
  4. How to access parameters in a Parameterized Build?
  5. How do I make a Jenkins job start after multiple simultaneous upstream jobs succeed?
  6. Strange variable scoping behavior in Jenkinsfile
  7. “Build Periodically” with a Multi-branch Pipeline in Jenkins
  8. How to write Pipeline to discard old builds?
  9. How to add a timeout step to Jenkins Pipeline
  10. Access a Groovy variable from within shell step in Jenkins pipeline
  11. How to invoke a jenkins pipeline A in another jenkins pipeline B
  12. How to differentiate build triggers in Jenkins Pipeline
  13. Determine Failed Stage in Jenkins Declarative Pipeline
  14. Get absolute path to workspace directory in Jenkins Pipeline plugin
  15. How do I prevent two pipeline jenkins jobs of the same type to run in parallel on the same node?
  16. Jenkins: Ignore failure in pipeline build step
  17. How to get the BUILD_USER in Jenkins when job triggered by timer?
  18. Jenkins pipeline template
  19. Cannot define variable in pipeline stage
  20. Jenkins scripted pipeline or declarative pipeline
  21. Abort current build from pipeline in Jenkins
  22. How to implement Post-Build stage using Jenkins Pipeline plug-in?
  23. Closures in Groovy not capturing outside variables
  24. How to list all `env` properties within jenkins pipeline job?
  25. Jenkins Pipeline Job with file parameter
  26. How do I pass variables between stages in a declarative Jenkins pipeline?
  27. Can I create dynamically stages in a Jenkins pipeline?
  28. Running stages in parallel with Jenkins workflow / pipeline
  29. How to read properties file from Jenkins 2.0 pipeline script
  30. Hiding password in Jenkins pipeline script

Leave a Comment