We have a version number which is retrieved from a file during the build and needs to be passed to the deployment script. What is the best way to do this in TFS 2017?
Right now, we are thinking of embedding this version number in the artifact file name and parsing it during deployment, which feels a bit clumsy.
BTW, is there a way to get the artifact file name easily? Looks like TFS already knows this as shown in the log below:
No path specified for search pattern: *.zip defaulting to: F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z Searching for: *.zip under directory: F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z Found: 1 files to extract:
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a\ZFJ0_ServiceSearchPlusBuildDefn\BETALink.Service.SearchPlus\ZFJ0_BETALink10.4 DevOps_BETALink.Service.SearchPlus_1.0.0_886.zip
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z Creating destination folder: F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a\48
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z Extracting file: F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a\ZFJ0_ServiceSearchPlusBuildDefn\BETALink.Service.SearchPlus\ZFJ0_BETALink10.4 DevOps_BETALink.Service.SearchPlus_1.0.0_886.zip
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8519067Z [command]F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\_tasks\ExtractFiles_5e1e3830-fbfb-11e5-aab1-090c92bc4988\1.112.1\7zip\7z.exe x -oF:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a\48 F:\TFS2017_Release_Agent\_work\r1\a\ZFJ0_ServiceSearchPlusBuildDefn\BETALink.Service.SearchPlus\ZFJ0_BETALink10.4 DevOps_BETALink.Service.SearchPlus_1.0.0_886.zip
2017-12-08T16:38:36.8987827Z
First, custom build variable couldn't be used directly in your release definition with TFS 2017.
There had also been a related user voice:
Project level build/release variables
https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-visual-studio-team-services/suggestions/14515326-project-level-build-release-variables#
As a workaround, you could use some 3-rd party extension such as Variable (de|re)Hydration Tasks that help you make use of your build variables in your Release workflows.
Variable Dehydration Task - During your build you can save the variables to a json file stored with your other build assets
Variable Rehydration Task - During your Release you can load the saved variables and gain access to them.
It does this by prefixes, so you can save/restore all default build variables that are prefixed with 'BUILD-', but if you prefix your own variables with i.e. 'ABC_' you can also save them from your build and restore them in your release.
Another way is do it through powershell scripts, how to please refer: TFS 2015 Release management access build variables
About build artifact name, there is not a related predefined system variable, it's just entered as an argument in Publish Build Artifacts task.
Related
I have automated a build/deploy process in Azure Devops / TFS and would like to scrape a file or folder name as a variable from the source file path that is used for my build artifact.
For example, I might want to scrape the folder name of the folder at the build source path and store it for use in the build #, release #, etc.
I have gone through Microsoft's documentation and I believe the information I'm looking for might be associated with the following... but I can't seem to find the right location.
Release.Artifacts.{alias}.BuildURI #The URL for the build.
Azure pipelines example: vstfs://build-release/Build/130
GitHub example: https://github.com/fabrikam/asp
When I attempt to locate the folder name from the source, I have so far been unable to find it in code.
Sorry, it's not possible to get the source file & folder name/Artifact name from the environment variable.
As of now, you need to specify the Artifact alias name in order to access the artifact related information.
E.g, Release.Artifacts.{alias}.DefinitionName
General Artifact variables
Primary Artifact Variables
Using default variables, you can use the default variables in two ways - as parameters to tasks in a release pipeline or in your scripts. here
We are moving from tfs 2012 to tfs 2018 and converting our XAML build templates to 2015.
For the most part, using the default build template TfvcTemplate12 work well. However when a project references the build number, it fails.
One example is when we use the windows service publish task.
<WindowsServicePublishTask Publish="$(DeployFileService)" ServiceDisplayName="$(ServiceDisplayName)" Destinations="$(ServiceDestinations)" SourcePath="$(OutDir)" BuildNumber="$(BuildNumber)" CreateDropFolder="$(CreateDropFolder)" />
I get the following error
The "WindowsServicePublishTask" task was not given a value for the required parameter "BuildNumber".
How can I reference the build number using TfvcTemplate12?
You are using the wrong environment variables. For XAML build:
TF_BUILD_BUILDNUMBER The build number of the build. For example: CIBuild_20130613.6.
More details please refer TF_BUILD environment variables
You can use the TF_BUILD environment variables to get key bits of data that you need for your build process logic. For example, you can get the path to the source folder or the path to the folder that contains the outputs you want to drop.
TF_BUILD environment variables
Use environment variables in MSBuild
Use environment variables in programs or scripts
Use environment variables in a custom build process
A sample of adding something like the following options to the MSBuild arguments:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true;DeployMethod=Package /p:DefaultPackageOutputDir=”$(TF_BUILD_BINARIESDIRECTORY)”\WebPackage
I'm setting up some TFS build definitions. I see that once I run a build, the work is done within a subfolder of a subdirectory of /Agent/_work. It appears that the subfolder is the same between different executions of the same build definition, but I see no way to know in advance where I should expect TFS to set its working directory, nor do I see any way of specifying the name of the directory manually.
How does TFS determine what directory to use for the output from a build?
Refer to the documentation on build variables. The base folder can be accessed via the $(Agent.BuildDirectory) variable. The source folder is $(Build.SourcesDirectory).
You can't set this. It's determined by the agent's configuration.
I'm trying to get a TFS current build directory path but it's not working. I've tried this:
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Activities.Extensions.WellKnownEnvironmentVariables.BuildDirectory
I see it printing right path with "GetBuildDirectory" Step (in the diagnostics log), but How would I store this information into a variable?
ANSWER:
There have been TF_BUILD environment variables.You can use the TF_BUILD environment variables to get key bits of data that you need for your build process logic. More from MSDN: Team Foundation Build environment variables
You could just reference the TF_BUILD_BUILDDIRECTORY to get The build agent working directory. For example: C:\Build\BuildBot3\CoolApp\CIBuild.
Currently I'm using the url with lastFailedBuild to display png (capturing page errors) in the browser (jenkins report) : http ://-jenkins-/job/jobName/lastFailedBuild/artifact/screenshots/Fail1.png/
But the problem is : I would be able to store as many artifacts as maximum build I set in the conf. So I would like to keep the artifacts for each build. We can already do it, but the url contains the build number (and I'd like to avoid manipulating the path to get back the build number). Is there a jenkins alias, a plugin, or can we use wildcards for that?
Have an alias like currentBuild wich returns the build number would be perfect (and simple). By 'current build', I mean to refer to the number build report I'm watching, not the last build report.
Also, where are physically stored the artifacts? I mean, I know where the files are stored, in the workspace, but for artifacts the url displays /job/, where is the folder contening artifacts in my jenkins server? Is it a sort of symbolic link to files in workspace?
I wonder : if I delete the image (in the workspace) before each new build, will it keep the previous artifacts ? I think it's yes because when I overwrite a png image the artifact is kept (it seems to me).
I think this topic : aliasing jenkins artifact URLs doesn't answer my question.
More details :
Here my current report, now I want to refer to http ://-jenkins-/job/JDN/55/artifact/screenshots/Fail1.png/ if I'm on build report #55, or http ://-jenkins-/job/JDN/50/artifact/screenshots/Fail1.png/ if I'm on build report #50.
I could do it in my script looking for the last number build but it's a little heavy. I'd like to know if Jenkins manages that, like lastFailedBuild, lastSuccessfulBuild alias. -> an alias which refers to the artifacts of the observed report. -> it could be something as : http ://-jenkins-/job/JDN/currentReportNumber/artifact/screenshots/Fail1.png/
There is permalink to /lastBuild, which was what I think you mean by "current build"
You can also add /buildNumber to any permalink to get just the value of the build number, for example /lastBuild/buildNumber will return the numeric value of the last executed build, while /lastFailedBuild/buildNumber will return the numeric value of the last failed build.
Physically, the artifacts are stored on the server alongside your WORKSPACE. Under $JENKINS_HOME (or %JENKINS_HOME% for Windows), look for /jobs/<jobname>. There you will see
- config.xml (your job configuration)
- nextBuildNumber (contains the next build number, don't modify this)
- workspace folder (this is the job's WORKSPACE that Jenkins uses during build
- builds folder (this is the history of all your retained builds)
Open the builds folder, and you will see all your saved builds (in time-stamped folders), including symlinks representing the permalinks (such as lastFailedBuild, etc). Under each time-stamped folder, you will see archive folder. This is where the archived artifacts are stored.
To access the WORKSPACE files through the URL use http://<jenkins-url>/job/<job-name>/ws/<path-to-files>
Jenkins has a list of variables you can use , see Jenkins Set Environment Variables. So in the shell script launched by the job; you can see the build number with echo $BUILD_NUMBER and use it. Or directly use BUILD_URL.
I obtained the specific url for each build with that.