I am trying to optimize my Jenkins builds by caching the dependencies and restoring them at the start of the build.

Travis has a custom ruby module called casher to handle their cache directives.

I am looking for something similar to avoid having to code it. But the need I have is composed of:

1. extract cached data if it exists

if [ -e /cache/${projectid}.tgz ] then tar zxf /cache/${projectid}.tgz fi

1. after builds verify if there are any files newer than /cache/${projectid}.tgz and rebuild if needed

rebuild_needed=0
for cached_folder in $cache_folders
  do
    if find ${cache_folder} -newer /cache/${projectid}.tgz
    then
      rebuild_needed=1
      break
   fi
done
if [ $rebuild_needed ]
then
  rm /cache/${projectid}.tgz
  tar zcf /cache/${projectid}.tgz ${cached_folders}