I note that when I create a new job from an existing one the build history remains visible on the right hand side even if a new workspace is defined. Could this be the cause or at least related?

Missing builds caused by working around this issue cause builder threads to crash in the latest version of Jenkins. See JENKINS-15957

I am still stuck with builds for different projects and/or configurations which make it look like the job is succeeding when it is failing or failing when it is succeeding because the latest build displayed on for the dashboard is in fact a completely different job.

Can anyone suggest a workaround to this issue?

I asked on the mailing list and go a much more rapid response.

For some reason I had a fixed hard-code directory
rather than the default:

${ITEM_ROOTDIR}/builds

I must have tweaked this very early on when I installed and not touched it since.
For extra paranoia I've now changed this to:

${ITEM_ROOTDIR}/builds/${ITEM_FULLNAME}

So far things look promising.

I am therefore re-purposing this issue as a request to make the location of build histories more obvious. Perhaps a link or something in a help bubble could be added to the configuration page for a job in the section containing:

Discard Old Builds
Days to keep builds
Days to keep artifacts
Max # of builds to keep with artifacts

This is where I would expect to see the location of the build history displayed if it were independently configured per job rather than globally (that may make sense but is not a feature I require myself and is possibly a YAGNI).

Input validation of global builds dir name does not catch this, but should.

Interpreting this issue as request to improve global config input validation.

https://github.com/jenkinsci/jenkins/pull/1251

I was having a problem with all of my build history getting repeatedly deleted - JENKINS-23067. I noticed that the buildsdir directory was non-standard. I changed it back to the default value and have not seen the issue since. In my case it was set as follows-

<workspaceDir>${JENKINS_HOME}/workspace</workspaceDir>
<buildsDir>${JENKINS_HOME}/workspace/builds/${ITEM_FULLNAME}</buildsDir>

(I didn't set it up originally, so I couldn't guess as to why)
I am not sure that this was the issue, but it also made the thinbackup plugin correctly back up the history so I won't lose it if the problem does resurface. The deletion seemed to happen very early in the morning, perhaps on a server restart (if that helps in any way)

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.