Curious to know what's the maximum number a Jenkins build number (BUILD_NUMBER) can get? I tried to find online but couldn't find this info.
Is it infinite or has some limit (being INT or INT64 or some other type)?
PS: I'm NOT looking for how to reset it back to #1 or #N using the following plugin or set it value to a given name (using Set build name plugin). https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Next+Build+Number+Plugin
To find it's limit, using Next Build Number plugin - when I set the build to "65,535", it still worked in getting me 65536 successfully and I kept increasing this value to 999999999 (9 times), and it still worked i.e. the next build ran which was 1000000000 and reaped a valid Jenkins build# for few other runs/builds.
When I tried to set the next build number as: 9999999999 (10 times), Jenkins plugin barfed with an error mesg (which shows the next build number I set was not an INTEGER i.e. not in the range):
A problem occurred while processing the request. Please check our bug tracker to see if a similar problem has already been reported. If it is already reported, please vote and put a comment on it to let us gauge the impact of the problem. If you think this is a new issue, please file a new issue. When you file an issue, make sure to add the entire stack trace, along with the version of Jenkins and relevant plugins. The users list might be also useful in understanding what has happened.
Stack trace
javax.servlet.ServletException: Build number must be an integer
at org.jvnet.hudson.plugins.nextbuildnumber.NextBuildNumberAction.doSubmit(NextBuildNumberAction.java:87)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
Found Jenkins BUILD_NUMBER is a SIGNED Integer data type and INT signed limits are:
int 2 or 4 bytes -32,768 to 32,767 or -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
Thus, the last value that a Jenkins job can be set or built is: 2147483647 (4 bytes here). Setting anything above this number will generate the expected INT limit error.
Noticed the following issue as well, with SET NEXT BUILD NUMBER plugin:
If I set the next build number between -2147483648 or 2147483647 (positive), this plugin it works in both cases i.e. giving Negative or a positive Number and setting it doesn't error out. BUT, if you have already reached at build# 2147483647 (under Job history), then even setting the build# to 1 did NOT generate the next build as 1 or 2 . or 3 and so on.
As the BUILD_NUMBER is SIGNED (-N to +N in the above range) and for ex: setting -22 works for setting the next build# using the plugin, it didn't give me build# -21 or build# 21 in my case.
What's happening is, while providing a negative/lower value than the last/previous build# then this plugin is taking that value within the limit BUT not actually doing anything / giving me the expected BUILD#. When I'm clicking on Build Now / every time you hit Build Now and if you click on "Set Next Build Number" to check the value, I noticed that the number listed in the box was auto-decrementing by the number of times I hit "Build Now" (this happens only when you have reached the limit) and negative/lower value has no effect for the next build number (as per the plugin docs).
I tested this by creating a new test_job (discarded old builds by retaining only 1 build):