In Azure DevOps, How to cancel the current build to directly start the new one?

In Azure DevOps, in Continuous Integration, in Pipeline build setup, using YAML build setup, is it possible, when I complete do many pull request during the same minute, and system start queuing the builds, because my system do build each time I accept a pull request on my master branch, is it possible to specify the system to cancel the current build to directly start the new one?

There is no built-in option can be used to easily set the pipeline to automatically cancel the running builds and only run the latest triggered build.

As a workaround, you can try to configure like as below:

1. Create a variable group (RunningBuilds), and add two variables (defId_{definitionId} and varGroupId).

   • defId_{definitionId}: Replace {definitionId} with the actual definitionId of your YAML pipeline (e.g., defId_75). The value is the buildId of the current running build. The initial value is 'null'.
   • varGroupId: The value of this variable is the variableGroupId of current variable group. You can find the value from the URL of this group displayed on the address bar of browser.

   

2. On the Security of the variable group, ensure the following identities have the Administrator role assigned. Replace {Project-Name} and {Organization-Name} with the actual names of your Azure DevOps organization and project.

   • {Project-Name} Build Service ({Organization-Name})
   • Project Collection Build Service ({Organization-Name})

   

3. Go to "Project Settings" > "Service connections" to create a new Generic service connection.

   • Server URL: https://dev.azure.com/{Organization-Name}/. Replace {Organization-Name} with the actual name of your Azure DevOps organization.
   • Service connection name: A custom name of the service connection.

   

4. Go to your YAML build pipeline, on the Security of the pipeline, ensure the identities mentioned above have the following permissions are set to 'Allow'.

   • View builds
   • Update build information
   • Queue builds
   • Manage build queue
   • Edit queue build configuration

   

5. In the pipeline, add a new stage to run before all other stages like as below.

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
    - master

variables:
- group: RunningBuilds

stages:
- stage: cancelBuild
  jobs:
  - job: cancelPreviousBuild
    variables:
      previousBuildId: $[variables.defId_${{ variables['System.DefinitionId'] }}]
    pool: server
    steps:
    - task: InvokeRESTAPI@1
      displayName: 'Cancel previous build'
      condition: ne(variables.previousBuildId, 'null')
      inputs:
        connectionType: 'connectedServiceName'
        serviceConnection: 'InvokeAPI'
        method: 'PATCH'
        headers: |
          {
              "Content-Type":"application/json",
              "Authorization": "Bearer $(System.AccessToken)"
          }
        body: |
          {
              "status":"cancelling"
          }
        urlSuffix: '$(System.TeamProject)/_apis/build/builds/$(previousBuildId)?api-version=7.1'
        waitForCompletion: 'false'
    
    - task: InvokeRESTAPI@1
      displayName: 'Update Variable Group'
      inputs:
        connectionType: 'connectedServiceName'
        serviceConnection: 'InvokeAPI'
        method: 'PUT'
        headers: |
          {
              "Content-Type":"application/json",
              "Authorization": "Bearer $(System.AccessToken)"
          }
        body: |
          {
              "name": "RunningBuilds",
              "variables": {
                  "defId_${{ variables['System.DefinitionId'] }}": {
                      "value": "$(Build.BuildId)"
                  },
                  "varGroupId": {
                      "value": "$(varGroupId)"
                  }
              },
              "variableGroupProjectReferences": [
                  {
                      "projectReference": {
                          "id": "$(System.TeamProjectId)",
                          "name": "$(System.TeamProject)"
                      },
                      "name": "RunningBuilds"
                  }
              ]
          }
        urlSuffix: '_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups/$(varGroupId)?api-version=7.1'
        waitForCompletion: 'false'

- stage: build
  dependsOn: cancelBuild
  . . .

With above configurations:

• When have new commits pushed to master branch, a new build is triggered.
• The step "Cancel previous build" in the new build will call the API "Builds - Update Build" to cancel the previous running build.
• The step "Update Variable Group" will call the API "Variablegroups - Update" to update the buildId of the new build as the value of the variable defId_{definitionId} in the variable group, so that the next build can know it.