How do I uninstall a plugin from Jenkins (Hudson)?

Asked 11/2, 2011 at 3:6 Answered 20/11, 2012 at 16:48

I have a few plugins in my Jenkins installation which I no longer need. I've already disabled the plugins (and my build still work), and I'd like to remove the plugins completely. What is the right process for completely removing a Jenkins (Hudson) plugin?

Reptant answered 11/2, 2011 at 3:6 Comment(0)

As mentioned by Jesse Glick in his answer, if you are using Jenkins 1.487 or higher, then there is a native way to uninstall plugins in the Jenkins UI. See JENKINS-3070 for details.

If you are using a version of Jenkins earlier than 1.487, then you can try manually uninstalling the plugin. As some people point out in the comments, this may not work on some platforms (in those cases, upgrade to at least 1.487 so that you can use the official uninstall feature).

To manually uninstall a plugin, stop Hudson/Jenkins, go to your HUDSON_HOME/plugins directory and remove both the .hpi file and the folder with the same name. So, if you were going to remove the CVS plugin, you would remove both the cvs.hpi file and the cvs directory.

After that, restart Hudson/Jenkins and the plugin won't be there anymore.

Cryptomeria answered 11/2, 2011 at 4:11 Comment(8)

Yes, no way to uninstall it from the GUI. See issues.hudson-ci.org/browse/HUDSON-3070 – Dowson 10/3, 2011 at 10:40

@Mark Today I removed a bunch of plugins but the cvs plugin keeps getting re-created. Any ideas how to remove this permanently? – Wagonlit 2/9, 2011 at 8:1

No matter what I do, all deleted plugins files are created again when I start Jenkins. – Enwrap 26/10, 2011 at 14:15

This method does not work when running Jenkins on Win Svr 2008 R2. When stopping, deleting the files, and then restarting the service, the files are then recreated in the file system automatically. – Omdurman 23/2, 2012 at 3:6

The correct issue is issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-3070 - vote for it! – Bistoury 30/7, 2012 at 15:38

Please do let me know where do i find the .hpi file. Because i dont find any .hpi file – Margravine 13/8, 2013 at 6:37

Manual deletion worked for me on Windows. One note I would like to add is that the files were locked and I had to restart Jenkins service in order to delete them. These command might be helpful: net stop jenkins and net start jenkins – Dietetic 17/7, 2015 at 17:5

It worked for me, but I had to remove .jpi files, not .hpi ("Hudson" -> "Jenkins"?) – Ingalls 30/9, 2015 at 7:47

Jenkins 1.487 adds a UI for uninstalling plugins: JENKINS-3070

Ingoing answered 20/11, 2012 at 16:48 Comment(1)

It will not display the delete button if the plugin is core, as mentioned by @flip. – Omasum 10/12, 2014 at 0:48

Deleting the <plugin>.hpi file and corresponding <plugin>-plugin directory will effectively remove the plugin.

However, if you have configured parameters that belong to the plugin within your jobs your Hudson or tomcat logs may contain *CannotResolveClassException: hudson.plugins ... * exceptions because it attempts to load the plugin. This can result in build failures even if build is successful.

To fix that,

go to the job configuration and save it again. This should get rid of the plugin reference
if not, go into the hudson home jobs directory and open the config.xml found under the folder named after the job and remove the reference to the plugin
restart hudson

Ceil answered 10/2, 2012 at 18:38 Comment(4)

This advice is obsolete on both counts: first, there is a UI for deleting plugins; second, there is a UI for discarding old configuration data in bulk. – Ingoing 11/12, 2014 at 12:56

Actually, the UI for deleting plugins was there at the time this was written in 2012. The issue I ran into at that time could not be resolved from the UI because the plugin triggered an exception in Hudson, thus the post. I don't think it is obsolete for anyone who runs into those conditions. – Ceil 12/12, 2014 at 0:33

You can use Manage Old Data (an administrative monitor) to review and discard any configuration belonging to now-removed plugins. There is no need to reconfigure individual jobs, edit files on disk, or restart. This has been there since 1.390 (Mar 2010). – Ingoing 12/12, 2014 at 14:39

The advice is still valid. If you've installed a plugin that has a bug in it, there's a chance it will throw exceptions everywhere in the web client. Then the only option is to delete the hpi manually. – Dietetic 17/7, 2015 at 17:3

Hudson Plugins explains that some core plugins ("Tier 1" plugins, as they are called) are shipped with Hudson itself, and I assume cannot be deleted therefore.

Chef answered 16/11, 2011 at 10:34 Comment(2)

ty! That is why the 'Uninstall' button is not present for those items. I was annoyed being asked to update items I don't use, but since I must keep them, I am updating :). – Omasum 4/12, 2014 at 17:23

It would be misleading to even offer to delete bundled plugins, since with no record of them even having been disabled, Jenkins would simply start loading them again after the next startup. – Ingoing 11/12, 2014 at 12:58

You can disable it using the Jenkins » Plugin Manager. Go to Installed tab and untick the plugins you want to uninstall and restart Jenkins. Though it does not unintall, at least keeps it away from appearing from configuration pages..

Halda answered 29/12, 2011 at 4:37 Comment(0)

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