How to use parallel steps?

[MennoVink]

Here's a subsection of my bitbucket-pipelines.yml:

pipelines:
    branches:
        release:
            - parallel:
                - step: *BuildWindows
                - step: *BuildMacOS
                - step: *BuildDocumentation
            - step:
                name: Upload
                deployment: Develop

This setup is intended to have builds running on three machines/platforms simultaneously. (Documentation is built on linux)

The definitions for these steps each target a different self-hosted machine that is currently idle like so:

definitions:
    steps:
        - step: &BuildWindows
            name: Build Windows
            runs-on:
                - 'self.hosted'
                - 'windows'

This page states that free plan users can have up to 10 parallel steps: https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/parallel-step-options/

In my experience, these steps execute sequentially. Any idea what i might be doing wrong? I have run out of build minutes (trying qodana), but since these steps run on self.hosted runners that should be fine, sequential builds to work.

[Mark C]

Hi @MennoVink

Thank you for reaching out to the community.

Based on the YAML configuration, it seems you're missing the "steps" property in your parallel steps.

It should be like this:

Regards,
Mark C

[MennoVink]

Hi @Mark C @Aron Gombas _Midori_ , thanks for your suggestions.

Unfortunately neither of them work. I've waited for build minutes to reset. All runners are online ready to accept steps. I have added the steps indirection to the parallel section.

I see BuildWindows starting right away, Build macOS and Build Documentation stay queued until their previous step is done.

Here is my full bitbucket-pipelines.yml: https://pastebin.com/8h5hHHqT

I'm trying to execute the branches -> release pipeline

Any other ideas as to what i could be doing wrong? The bitbucket pipelines yaml validator sais it's valid.

[Mark C]

Hi @MennoVink

Were you getting some errors?

Regards,
Mark C

[MennoVink]

No errors, the pipeline runs through to completion, just one step at a time. 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@MennoVink 

Two ideas:

1. Check if all three self-hosted runners are online and in an idle state at the time the pipeline triggers. You can check runner status under Repository Settings > Runners.
2. Wait for your build minutes to reset, and then test the parallel block again.