patternMinor

Cancel sibling snapshot dependency on failure

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-devops·Mar 10, 2026·

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canceldependencysiblingsnapshotfailure

Problem

I have a simple build chain configure in TeamCity:

build ->
create-base-image ->                      -> docker publish
                         test  ->

I have the "On failed dependency: cancel build" option enabled. So if either build or test fails, the queued docker publish step will be cancelled.

However if build fails, the test step continues to run all the way through and visa versa.

I would like to cancel all sibling tasks if any of them fail. Or if a dependent step is cancelled (docker publish) I would like all currently running dependencies of that to be stopped.

Someone asks the same question here:
https://teamcity-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206926235-Cancel-other-snapshot-dependencies-if-one-dependency-fails-

But I'm not sure if the linked YouTrack issue is actually solving this problem.

Solution

I was unable to find a way to configure the build to behave like I wanted. Instead I needed to start using the TeamCity API to achieve this.

In the build.sh and test.sh file that TC runs, I extended the failure function (simple bash function we call whenever our build script fails):

teamcityFailure () {
    . ./cancel_build_chain.sh
    echo "##teamcity[buildProblem description='$1']"
    exit 1
}

This now calls off to this new cancel_build_chain.sh script, which looks something like this:

#!/bin/bash

teamcityProgress () {
    echo "##teamcity[progressMessage '$1']"
}

teamcityProgress "Build step has failed, attempting to cancel the rest of the build chain..."

BUILD_ID=$TEAMCITY_BUILD_ID # passed in from build chain configuration

# Use the current failed step ID to query for the snapshotDependency "from:" here - which returns the final "docker publish" step
FINAL_STEP_DATA=$(curl --silent --request GET \
    "https://teamcity/app/rest/builds/project:MyProjectName,snapshotDependency:(from:(id:$BUILD_ID),includeInitial:true),defaultFilter:false" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/xml"")

# From the "docker publish" step, parse the XML and fetch out all dependent step IDs. One will be this current step, the others will be its sibling steps
# We do this twice, once for queued steps, and once for currently running steps. This is because we need to cancel running vs queued builds differently.
QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=$(echo $FINAL_STEP_DATA \
 | grep -Eo '" \
        --header "Content-Type: application/xml"
done

for DEP_ID in $RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS
do
    teamcityProgress "Cancelling running build step $DEP_ID"
    curl --silent --request POST \
        "https://teamcity/app/rest/builds/project:MyProjectName,id:$DEP_ID" \
        --data "" \
        --header "Content-Type: application/xml"
done

Not super elegant but it gets the job done and prevents build agents sitting there running build steps for builds which have already failed.

Code Snippets

teamcityFailure () {
    . ./cancel_build_chain.sh
    echo "##teamcity[buildProblem description='$1']"
    exit 1
}

#!/bin/bash

teamcityProgress () {
    echo "##teamcity[progressMessage '$1']"
}

teamcityProgress "Build step has failed, attempting to cancel the rest of the build chain..."

BUILD_ID=$TEAMCITY_BUILD_ID # passed in from build chain configuration

# Use the current failed step ID to query for the snapshotDependency "from:" here - which returns the final "docker publish" step
FINAL_STEP_DATA=$(curl --silent --request GET \
    "https://teamcity/app/rest/builds/project:MyProjectName,snapshotDependency:(from:(id:$BUILD_ID),includeInitial:true),defaultFilter:false" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/xml"")

# From the "docker publish" step, parse the XML and fetch out all dependent step IDs. One will be this current step, the others will be its sibling steps
# We do this twice, once for queued steps, and once for currently running steps. This is because we need to cancel running vs queued builds differently.
QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=$(echo $FINAL_STEP_DATA \
 | grep -Eo '<snapshot-dependencies.+<build id="[0-9]+".+state="queued"' \
 | grep -Eo 'id="([0-9]+)"' \
 | grep -Eo '[0-9]+')

# Now remove the current step ID
QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=${QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS/$BUILD_ID/}

# trim leading / trailing whitespace
QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS | sed 's/ *$//'

RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=$(echo $FINAL_STEP_DATA \
 | grep -Eo '<snapshot-dependencies.+<build id="[0-9]+".+state="running"' \
 | grep -Eo 'id="([0-9]+)"' \
 | grep -Eo '[0-9]+')

# Now remove the current step ID
RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=${RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS/$BUILD_ID/}

# trim leading / trailing whitespace
RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS=RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS | sed 's/ *$//'

for DEP_ID in $QUEUED_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS
do
    teamcityProgress "Cancelling queued build step $DEP_ID"
    curl --silent --request POST \
        "https://teamcity/app/rest/buildQueue/project:MyProjectName,id:$DEP_ID" \
        --data "<buildCancelRequest comment='Another part of the build chain failed so this sibling step was cancelled.' readdIntoQueue='false' />" \
        --header "Content-Type: application/xml"
done

for DEP_ID in $RUNNING_DEPENDENT_STEP_IDS
do
    teamcityProgress "Cancelling running build step $DEP_ID"
    curl --silent --request POST \
        "https://teamcity/app/rest/builds/project:MyProjectName,id:$DEP_ID" \
        --data "<buildCancelRequest comment='Another part of the build chain failed so this sibling step was cancelled.' readdIntoQueue='false' />" \
        --header "Content-Type: application/xml"
done

Context

StackExchange DevOps Q#6420, answer score: 2

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