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

Question

I wanted to show the user who triggered a Jenkins job in the post job email. This is possible by using the plugin Build User Vars Plugin and the env variable

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.