Groovy slash operator (Jenkins job-dsl)

Question

We would like to understand a couple of legacy job-dsl scripts but don't know what "slash operator" means in this context (as it cant be division):

def command = (shells.first() / command)

We have tried to look it up in several Groovy books but only found the trivial solution that it means 'division'.

Answer 1

It's an XML Node operation, to return a sub-node of a XML node, or create it if it doesn't exist. Probably the command node under the first of your shells nodes here.

Groovy allows operator overloading , so it is the same "division" operator, just redefined somewhat. This is common (but also controversial) in other languages allowing operator overloading, but does allow for richer DSLs.

Having had a quick look at (an old copy of) the JobDSL source , it seems that they're doing it using a class NodeEnhancement , notably this JavaDoc:

/**
Add div and leftShift operators to Node.
div - Will return the first child that matches name, and if it doesn't exists, it creates
...
**/