How to get the BUILD_USER in Jenkins when job triggered by timer?

Build user vars plugin wasn't working for me so I did a quick-and-dirty hack:

BUILD_CAUSE_JSON=$(curl --silent ${BUILD_URL}/api/json | tr "{}" "\n" | grep "Started by")
BUILD_USER_ID=$(echo $BUILD_CAUSE_JSON | tr "," "\n" | grep "userId" | awk -F\" '{print $4}')
BUILD_USER_NAME=$(echo $BUILD_CAUSE_JSON | tr "," "\n" | grep "userName" | awk -F\" '{print $4}')

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS (NO PLUGINS) !!

METHOD 1: Via Shell

BUILD_TRIGGER_BY=$(curl -k --silent ${BUILD_URL}/api/xml | tr '<' '\n' | egrep '^userId>|^userName>' | sed 's/.*>//g' | sed -e '1s/$/ \//g' | tr '\n' ' ')
echo "BUILD_TRIGGER_BY: ${BUILD_TRIGGER_BY}"

METHOD 2: Via Groovy

node('master') {
BUILD_TRIGGER_BY = sh ( script: "BUILD_BY=\$(curl -k --silent ${BUILD_URL}/api/xml | tr '<' '\n' | egrep '^userId>|^userName>' | sed 's/.*>//g' | sed -e '1s/\$/ \\/ /g'); if [[ -z \${BUILD_BY} ]]; then BUILD_BY=\$(curl -k --silent ${BUILD_URL}/api/xml | tr '<' '\n' | grep '^shortDescription>' | sed 's/.*user //g;s/.*by //g'); fi; echo \${BUILD_BY}", returnStdout: true ).trim()
echo "BUILD_TRIGGER_BY: ${BUILD_TRIGGER_BY}"
}

METHOD 3: Via Groovy

BUILD_TRIGGER_BY = "${currentBuild.getBuildCauses()[0].shortDescription} / ${currentBuild.getBuildCauses()[0].userId}"
echo "BUILD_TRIGGER_BY: ${BUILD_TRIGGER_BY}"

OUTPUT:

Started by user Admin / user@example.com

Note: Output will be both User ID and User Name

Install 'Build User Vars Plugin' and use like below:- [ See https://plugins.jenkins.io/build-user-vars-plugin ]

Be sure to check mark the Set jenkins user build variables checkbox under Build Environment for your Jenkins job's configuration.

Without Plugin ->

def cause = currentBuild.getBuildCauses('hudson.model.Cause$UserIdCause')
echo "userName: ${cause.userName}"

I found similar but really working on Jenkins 2.1.x and easy for my understanding way. And it works without any plugins.

if (currentBuild.getBuildCauses('hudson.model.Cause$UserIdCause')['userId']){
    // Will be run only if someone user triggers build
    // Because in other cases this contructions returns null
}

You can use in this construction any classes described here. They will be returns maps with usable values.

This gets the username who clicked "Build Now" in a Jenkins pipeline job.

@NonCPS
def getBuildUser() {
    return currentBuild.rawBuild.getCause(Cause.UserIdCause).getUserId()
}

I'm using a combination of the 'Execute Shell' and 'Env Inject' plugin as follows:

1. Create an 'Execute Shell' build step that uses shell parameter substitution to write default the value and echo that value into a file. Example highlighted in screen shot below.
2. Use the 'Env Inject' file to read that file as properties to set.

I wanted to trigger build initiator info to one of my slack/flock group so I used following way to get build initiator email and name by writing in Declarative fashion .

I am just printing here, you can use to store in some environment variable or write in one file giving file path according to your own convenience..

pipeline {
environment {
    BRANCH_NAME = "${env.BRANCH_NAME}"
    }
agent any

stages{
        stage('Build-Initiator-Info'){
                sh 'echo $(git show -s --pretty=%ae)'
                sh 'echo $(git show -s --pretty=%an)'
        }
           }
}

Just to elaborate on Musaffir Lp's answer. The Conditional Build Step plugin now supports the Build Cause directly - it requires the Run Condition Plugin also.

If you wanted to detect when the build was started by a timer you can select a Run? value of Build Cause, with Build Cause of: TimerTrigger

This is a little simpler and more robust than using a regex. There are also other triggers you can detect, for example when the build was a result of Source Control Management commit, you can select: SCMTrigger.

This below is working for me.

Install "user build vars plugin"

Build Name  =   ${BUILD_NUMBER}_${TICKET}_${ENV,var="BUILD_USER_ID"}

I have written a groovy script to extract the started by which would correctly get the source, regardless if user, scm or timer (could add more). It would recursively navigate the build tree to get the "original" 'started by' cause https://github.com/Me-ion/jenkins_build_trigger_cause_extractor

I created a function that return the Triggered Job Name:

String getTriggeredJob(CURRENT_BUILD) {

  if (CURRENT_BUILD.upstreamBuilds.size() > 0) {

    TRIGGERED_JOB = CURRENT_BUILD.upstreamBuilds[0].projectName

    if (!TRIGGERED_JOB.isEmpty()) {
      return TRIGGERED_JOB
    }
  } 

  return "Self"
}

CURRENT_BUILD is env var currentBuild

How to return Username & UserId:

UserName: currentBuild.rawBuild.getCause(Cause.UserIdCause).getUserName()

UserId: currentBuild.rawBuild.getCause(Cause.UserIdCause).getUserId()

There is other way to get user_id, where you don't need to install anything.

BUILD_USER_ID = sh (
    script: 'id -u',
    returnStdout: true
).trim()
echo "bUILD USER: ${BUILD_USER_ID }"

For declarative pipeline syntax, here is a quick hack, base on @Kevin answer. For declarative pipeline you need to enclose them in a node, else you will get an error/ build failure

node {
    def BUILD_FULL = sh (
        script: 'curl --silent '+buildURL+' | tr "{}" "\\n" | grep -Po \'"shortDescription":.*?[^\\\\]"\' | cut -d ":" -f2',
        returnStdout: true
        )

    slackSend channel: '#ci-cd',
          color: '#000000',
          message: "The pipeline was ${BUILD_FULL}  ${GIT_COMMIT_MSG} "

}

The output will be slack notification sent to your slack channel with the git short description