Understanding alwaysDeploy and skipIfAlreadyInstalled in Deployment Pipelines

This page provides an explanation of the alwaysDeploy and skipIfAlreadyInstalled commands in deployment pipelines,

Overview

The alwaysDeploy attribute for packages is designed to always deploy a package, regardless of other conditions. However, it only runs if the package is available in the collection of artifacts to be deployed. It then deploys the package, regardless of whether the package was previously installed or not.

On the other hand, the skipIfAlreadyInstalled attribute allows the deployment process to skip the installation of a package if it is already installed.

Interaction between alwaysDeploy and skipIfAlreadyInstalled

The alwaysDeploy attribute should work when skipIfAlreadyInstalled is set to true. However, it's important to note that alwaysDeploy only deploys a package if it was built in the previous step. Therefore, if your requirement is to always deploy a package, regardless of whether it was changed or not, alwaysDeploy will not solve your requirement.

The Install Command

The install command is based on the existing artifact files in the artifacts directory. The --artifacts --release-config parameter filters artifacts available for usage. The same applies for alwaysDeploy; if the artifact is not available in the provided directory, it won't install because there is no such artifact available. In contrast, the release command first fetches the artifacts (based on the config file) then installs them.

In summary, the flag "alwaysDeploy" could be better described as: If the artifact is available, then deploy it.

Workaround for Always Deploying a Package while using install command

If you need to always deploy a package ensure you fetch the artifact into the artifact directory, so sfp's command will pick up the artifact as part of the collection