Paul: In case it's not obvious what these settings do:

• You cause all jobs in your entire Jenkins to use the same workspace directory. Not "in the same directory tree", but the same directory.
• Inside that workspace directory, you store all your build data.

You probably have a job or two that run over night and delete their workspace (e.g. Workspace Cleanup plugin), and with it, all your build records.

I'm sorry, but that's too messed up for me to add input validation for.

lol- as I said, I didn't set it up- I didn't realize that was something you could change until I was investigating this!

I hadn't realized the implication of setting the workspace that way- that it forced everything to use a common workspace. I didn't use the master to build anything, so it may not have mattered (executors are set to 0)- but I do wonder if that is what wiped out the build history? Would the master ever wipe out its workspace as part of the normal order of business?

Feel free to not add validation for that... I just wanted to contribute the information in case it was helpful.

Paul: Right, thanks for the information in any case.

Regarding builds on master and workspaces: There's a workspace cleanup thread that logs to hudson.model.WorkspaceCleanupThread on levels FINE and FINER. It will tell you if it's the cause of this. Disable it by setting the Java system property -Dhudson.model.WorkspaceCleanupThread.disabled=true.

Code changed in jenkins
User: Daniel Beck
Path:
core/src/main/java/jenkins/model/Jenkins.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/jenkins/0b556c0fa8dd0ebd1851c3b37025e2c0321fafe8
Log:
JENKINS-14583 Move replacement into shared function for reuse

Code changed in jenkins
User: Daniel Beck
Path:
core/src/main/java/jenkins/model/Jenkins.java
core/src/test/java/jenkins/model/JenkinsDescriptorTest.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/jenkins/50cbded7f8636b5dc745c4ee8cae23af3ee110f8
Log:
JENKINS-14583 Fix tests

Code changed in jenkins
User: Daniel Beck
Path:
core/src/main/java/jenkins/model/Jenkins.java
core/src/test/java/jenkins/model/JenkinsDescriptorTest.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/jenkins/5751560fc186ff4add58f9bc7b8eab20a682b09f
Log:
Merge pull request #1251 from daniel-beck/JENKINS-14583

[FIX JENKINS-14538] Improve builds dir input validation

Compare: https://github.com/jenkinsci/jenkins/compare/e8b1a500c9b9...5751560fc186

Merged towards 1.575.

Integrated in jenkins_main_trunk #3551
JENKINS-14583 Move replacement into shared function for reuse (Revision 0b556c0fa8dd0ebd1851c3b37025e2c0321fafe8)
JENKINS-14583 Fix tests (Revision 50cbded7f8636b5dc745c4ee8cae23af3ee110f8)

Result = SUCCESS
daniel-beck : 0b556c0fa8dd0ebd1851c3b37025e2c0321fafe8
Files :

• core/src/main/java/jenkins/model/Jenkins.java

daniel-beck : 50cbded7f8636b5dc745c4ee8cae23af3ee110f8
Files :

• core/src/main/java/jenkins/model/Jenkins.java
• core/src/test/java/jenkins/model/JenkinsDescriptorTest.java

Hi Bruce,
I face the same issue of dead executors with jenkins-1.532.3. Coudl you please provide insights:
Here is the log:
Exception in thread "Executor #0 for master" java.lang.ClassCastException: hudson.model.FreeStyleBuild cannot be cast to hudson.model.Action
at hudson.model.Run.onLoad(Run.java:331)
at hudson.model.RunMap.retrieve(RunMap.java:223)
at hudson.model.RunMap.retrieve(RunMap.java:59)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.load(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:688)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.load(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:671)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.search(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:470)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild.getPreviousBuild(AbstractBuild.java:219)
at hudson.tasks.Fingerprinter$FingerprintAction.compact(Fingerprinter.java:361)
at hudson.tasks.Fingerprinter$FingerprintAction.onLoad(Fingerprinter.java:350)
at hudson.model.Run.onLoad(Run.java:333)
at hudson.model.RunMap.retrieve(RunMap.java:223)
at hudson.model.RunMap.retrieve(RunMap.java:59)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.load(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:688)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.load(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:650)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.search(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:382)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.getByNumber(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:547)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.search(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:393)
at jenkins.model.lazy.AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.newestBuild(AbstractLazyLoadRunMap.java:335)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.getLastBuild(AbstractProject.java:1089)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.getLastBuild(AbstractProject.java:152)
at hudson.model.Job.isLogUpdated(Job.java:293)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.getCauseOfBlockage(AbstractProject.java:1285)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.isBuildBlocked(AbstractProject.java:1222)
at hudson.model.Queue.isBuildBlocked(Queue.java:1021)
at hudson.model.Queue.maintain(Queue.java:1080)
at hudson.model.Queue.pop(Queue.java:935)
at hudson.model.Executor.grabJob(Executor.java:297)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:211)

maitreymishra23: Please direct any questions not directly related to wrong builds dir settings to #jenkins on Freenode or the jenkinsci-users mailing list. Unrelated discussion has no place in Jira.