Azure-pipelines-agent: Incorrect PATH variable

[aviatrix]

Agent Version and Platform

2.150.3 - Linux - Debian 9.7

Azure DevOps Type and Version

dev.azure.com

What's not working?

When executing bash tasks the agent doesn't pickup the proper user path.
Path returned from doing echo $PATH in a bash task : /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

Expected (when doing the same from a shell as the same user as the agent) :
/usr/local/lib/npm/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/local/lib/npm/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/:/usr/lib/postgresql/9.6/bin
All of the above paths were added after the installation of the agent.
The agent runs as a service, and the paths were not updated after agent restart nor from machine reboot.

To fix this i had to manually update the .path file in the agent folder.

[TingluoHuang]

hope this help. :)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-linux?view=azure-devops#service-update-environment-variables

[aviatrix]

Ah... yes it does... not sure how i missed this.
However wouldn't it be less confusing if this was done automatically after service restart? or not store those variables on disk and instead using the current runtime values ?

[krknopp]

Yes, please make this happen on agent restart. or more often. like every time the /etc/environment file changes.

[jtpetty]

@vtbassmatt - I believe this was done intentionally as a security measure. Do you have any recollection as to why this was done this way?

[vtbassmatt]

This is done for reliability/repeatability. We try not to slide the environment out from under an agent. @jtpetty I see two possible approaches here, maybe you see others:
1) Accept a flag at config time that says we want this agent to not snap its environment variables
2) Implement a signal handler so that the agent doesn't have to stop/start to pick up new variables.
The sequence would become:

./env.sh
kill -HUP <agent process ID>

If we do #2, then while a job is running, we should probably defer the update until the next job runs.

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