Is it possible to run pipelines against a matrix of images?

[Jared Evans]

GitHub Actions allows you to run a pipeline against a matrix of images, e.g. multiple node versions:

```

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [14.x, 16.x]
        # See supported Node.js release schedule at https://nodejs.org/en/about/releases/

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
        cache: 'npm'
    - run: npm ci
    - run: npm run build --if-present
    - run: npm test

```

With this pipeline running tests against node.js 14 and node.js 16.  

Is there a way to do this with bitbucket pipelines?

[Theodora Boudale]

Hi Jared and welcome to the community!

Bitbucket Pipelines runs builds in Docker containers. For every step you define in your bitbucket-pipelines.yml file, a Docker container starts with the Docker image defined in the yml file, the repo is cloned in that container, then the commands of that step's script are executed, and in the end, the container gets destroyed.

One thing you can do is define a separate step for each node version you want to test, and then use for each step a different Docker image that has the version of node you want:

pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        name: Build and test Node 14
        image: node:14
        script:
          - npm install
          - npm test
    - step:
        name: Build and test Node 16
        image: node:16
        script:
          - npm install
          - npm test

A setup like that will use Dockerhub images node:14 and node:16 as a build environment for each step respectively. However, you can use instead any public and private Docker images including those hosted on Docker Hub, AWS, GCP, Azure, and self-hosted registries accessible on the internet. Please see more details here: https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/use-docker-images-as-build-environments/

If the steps have the same commands, you can also use YAML anchors so that you won't have repeated sections, and define again a different Docker image for each step:

definitions: 
  steps:
    - step: &build-test
        name: Build and test
        script:
          - npm install
          - npm test

pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        <<: *build-test
        image: node:14
    - step:
        <<: *build-test
        image: node:16

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Kind regards,
Theodora