After creating a DSL job using the following closure:

cmake

{ cmakeInstallation('InSearchPath') generator('Visual Studio 14 2015') sourceDir('control4') cleanBuild() buildDir('control4/build') }

The resulting xml looks like so:

<hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder>
<installationName>InSearchPath</installationName>
<generator>Visual Studio 14 2015</generator>
<cleanBuild>true</cleanBuild>
<sourceDir>control4</sourceDir>
<workingDir>control4/build</workingDir>
<toolArgs>-DIGNORE_UNIT_TESTS=1</toolArgs>
</hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder>

When I run the job in that configuration the exception reported is thrown. After changing the job (just saving it in the UI) the XML looks like so:

<hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder plugin="cmakebuilder@2.4.4">
<installationName>InSearchPath</installationName>
<workingDir>control4/build</workingDir>
<toolArgs>-DIGNORE_UNIT_TESTS=1</toolArgs>
<generator>Visual Studio 14 2015</generator>
<sourceDir>control4</sourceDir>
<cleanBuild>true</cleanBuild>
<toolSteps/>
</hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder>

And the job runs without complaint. I have no toolSteps defined, nor do I want any (it appears optional anyway).

The empty toolSteps element must be set. I am now using the configure closure to work around the issue:

configure {
it / builders << 'hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder' (plugin: 'cmakebuilder')

{ installationName('InSearchPath') workingDir('control4/build') generator('Visual Studio 14 2015') sourceDir('control4') cleanBuild('true') toolSteps() }

}

Here's the full stacktrace:

00:00:20.364 java.lang.NullPointerException
00:00:20.364 at hudson.plugins.cmake.CmakeBuilder.perform(CmakeBuilder.java:265)
00:00:20.364 at hudson.tasks.BuildStepMonitor$1.perform(BuildStepMonitor.java:20)
00:00:20.364 at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.perform(AbstractBuild.java:779)
00:00:20.364 at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.build(Build.java:205)
00:00:20.364 at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.doRun(Build.java:162)
00:00:20.365 at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.run(AbstractBuild.java:534)
00:00:20.365 at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1728)
00:00:20.365 at hudson.model.FreeStyleBuild.run(FreeStyleBuild.java:43)
00:00:20.365 at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:98)
00:00:20.365 at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:404)