Jenkins: stash-like helper functions that use artifacts

functions.groovy

void stashAsArtifact(steps, String name, String fileGlob) {
    steps.sh([label: "Bundle stash ${name}",
              script: "#!/usr/bin/env bash\nshopt -s globstar\ntar --hard-dereference -czf '${name}.tar.gz' ${fileGlob}"])
    steps.archiveArtifacts([artifacts: "${name}.tar.gz",
                            fingerprint: true,
                            onlyIfSuccessful: true])
}

void unstashFromArtifact(steps, String name) {
    steps.unarchive(mapping: ["${name}.tar.gz": "${name}.tar.gz"])
    steps.sh([label: "Unbundle stash ${name}",
              script: "tar -xzf '${name}.tar.gz' --unlink-first --recursive-unlink && rm '${name}.tar.gz'"])
}

Jenkinsfile_snippet

// "Stash" in one stage ...
script {
    stashAsArtifact(this, 'node-dependencies', '**/node_modules/')
}

// ... and "unstash" in another
script {
    unstashFromArtifact(this, 'node-dependencies')
}

The official docs say:

Note that the stash and unstash steps are designed for use with small files. [...] There's not a hard stash size limit, but between 5-100 MB you should probably consider alternatives.

In my experiments, this didn't perform better. Probably because I don't avoid the main reason stated:

This is because stashed files are archived in a compressed TAR, and with large files this demands considerable on-master resources, particularly CPU time.

So it's definitely a better idea to go another route:

For large data transfers, use the External Workspace Manager plugin, or use an external repository manager such as Nexus or Artifactory.