If you're running your Jenkins builds in (Docker) containers - which I would recommend - you may have noticed that not all of your environment variables are passed through to the container from the host.

Fortunately this is straightforward to do, but has a slight implementation difference depending on how your pipeline is set up.

We'll use the contrived example of passing through the AWS_REGION and HOSTNAME environment variables to the container.

Declarative Pipeline

If you're using a declarative pipeline you'll likely have something like:

pipeline {
  agent {
    docker {
      image 'alpine'
    }
  }
  stages {
    stage('Environment Variables') {
      steps {
        sh 'env'
      }
    }
  }
}

And to pass the variables, we can pass the following argument:

 pipeline {
   agent {
     docker {
       image 'alpine'
+      args '-e AWS_REGION=$AWS_REGION -e HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME'
     }
   }
   stages {
     stage('Environment Variables') {
       steps {
         sh 'env'
       }
     }
   }
 }

Note the single quotes, which must be done, otherwise Jenkins will attempt to resolve it as part of the WorkflowScript it's running, which will either not exist, or not be correct. Single quotes allows it to be interpolated at the right time, and pull the variables correctly.

Scripted Pipeline

If you're using a scripted pipeline you'll likely have something like:

docker.image('alpine').inside {
  stage('Environment Variables') {
    sh 'env'
  }
}

And to pass the variables, we can pass the following argument:

-docker.image('alpine').inside {
+docker.image('alpine').inside('-e AWS_REGION=$AWS_REGION -e HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME') {
   stage('Environment Variables') {
     sh 'env'
   }
 }

Note the single quotes, which must be done, otherwise Jenkins will attempt to resolve it as part of the WorkflowScript it's running, which will either not exist, or not be correct. Single quotes allows it to be interpolated at the right time, and pull the variables correctly.