Bamboo 4.2 : Triggering a plan build manually

Bamboo allows you to ensure that builds are only triggered manually or by parent builds of dependent builds.

You can also run a customised build, which allows you to do the following:

  • Override any global variables or plan variables with your own parameters when triggering a build manually. This is referred to as running a 'parameterised plan build'.
  • Select which manual Stages to run, if manual stages have been configured for the plan.

If you want to trigger builds automatically rather than manually, you can trigger builds based on code changes or based on a schedule.

Starting a plan build manually

To start a plan build manually:

  1. Locate the relevant plan on the Dashboard.
  2. Click the Run icon .

Starting a parameterised plan build

If you trigger a plan build manually, you can override any global variables or plan variables by substituting your own parameters.

Before you begin:

  • You cannot run a parameterised plan build if it is triggered automatically.
  • You can only run a parameterised plan build if you have defined global variables for Bamboo or plan variables for your plan.

To start a parameterised plan build:

  1. Navigate to the Plan Summary (not Plan configuration) for the desired plan.
  2. Choose Run Plan > Run Customised Plan.
  3. Override the desired global and plan variables in the appropriate tab of the 'Run Customised Build' dialog.
    Note, the 'Plan Variables' and 'Global Variables' tabs will not appear if you do not have such variables defined.
  4. Click Run.

Screenshot: Overriding Plan Variables for a Parameterised Plan Build

Starting a plan build with manual stages

If you manually trigger a plan build that has manual stages, you can select the manual stages to run.

To start a plan build, manually selecting the stages to run:

  1. Navigate to the Plan Summary (not Plan configuration) for the desired plan.
  2. Choose Run Plan > Run Customised Plan.
  3. Click the Stages tab in the 'Run Customised Build' dialog, and select the desired manual stages to run.
  4. Click Run.

Configuring a plan's build to be triggered only manually or as a dependency

You can specify that a plan should only ever be built manually or triggered by other builds. This is useful for:

  • Broken builds — If a build is broken, you may want to temporarily specify Manual & dependent builds only. This means that a failing build will not be triggered frequently and hence will not take up time and processing power when other builds could be running.
  • Dependent builds —If you specify that a build should run when another build successfully finishes, you may want to prevent it from running at other times. You can achieve this by specifying Manual & dependent builds only.

To allow a plan's build to be triggered only manually or as a dependency:

  1. Navigate to the repository settings for the desired plan, as described on Specifying the source repository.
  2. Select Manual & dependent builds only from the Build Strategy list  (see screenshot below).
  3. Click Save.

Screenshot: Plan Configuration — Build Strategy: Manual builds only