How to use GitVersion Environment variables - f#

Question

I have a project which I used to build via AppVeyor. The build sequence was the following:
Install and run GitVersion
Build project
Create package using evaluated version number.
The last step was done by the PowerShell command:
nuget pack path/tofile.nuspec -Version (get-item env:GitVersion_InformationalVersion).Value
As you can see the version is taken from environment variable defined by GitVersion.
Now I want to migrate the build to a FAKE build script.
I have these dependencies defined in my script.
"Clean"
=?> ("GitVersion", Choco.IsAvailable)
==> "RestorePackages"
==> "BuildApp"
==> "CreatePackage"
==> "Default"
Git version step is straightforward.
Target "GitVersion" (fun _ ->
"gitversion.portable" |> Choco.Install id
Shell.Exec("gitversion","/l console /output buildserver" ) |> ignore
)
I can see in my logs that variables are set by GitVersion.
Adding Environment Variable. name='GitVersion_SemVer'
value='1.1.1-xxx'
The next step is to create the package.
Target "CreatePackage" (fun _ ->
TraceEnvironmentVariables()
let version =
match buildServer with
| AppVeyor -> environVar "GitVersion_SemVer"
| _ -> baseVersion + "-local"
NuGet (fun p ->
{p with
OutputPath = packagingDir
WorkingDir = "."
Version = version
Publish = false })
nuspecFileName
)
I'm printing all the variables defined, after that I'm trying to get the version by reading variable and assigning it to version.
Unfortunately version stays empty when I run the build. After I added TraceEnvironmentVariables() method call I can see that none of the variables defined by GitVersion is presented in the output.
As John Palmer and dustinmoris said the process started by Shell.Execute sets all variables as process-level ones.
Is there a way to use Shell.Execute so that the process can set global scope environment variables?
UPD
As a workaround, I've added extra step in AppVeyor.yml config file:
init:
- git config --global core.autocrlf input
install:
- choco install gitversion.portable -y
before_build:
- ps: gitversion /l console /output buildserver /b (get-item env:APPVEYOR_REPO_BRANCH).Value
build_script:
- cmd: build.bat BuildApp
In this case, variables are set in a global scope and I can get them and use in my build script.
Obviously, PowerShell starts GitVersion in a different way. I guess, I should mimic it somehow in my build script.
So my question remains the same, how to use GitVersion as a target in my script and get the version number back.

Answer 1

Have you had a look at Fake GitVersionHelper? http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/apidocs/fake-gitversionhelper.html
#r "packages/FAKE/tools/FakeLib.dll"
open Fake
open Fake.GitVersionHelper
let version = GitVersion (id)
printfn "FullSemVer %s" version.FullSemVer
printfn "NuGetVersionV2 %s" version.NuGetVersionV2

Answer 2

Your problem is that you create a process-level environment variable. After you exist the shell process the next step which runs in a different process doesn't know about any env vars which you set there.
You will have to set a permanent environment variable like user-level or machine-level one.
Have a look at the Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable method in .NET.
Example:
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("key", "value", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine);
However, I don't think this is a good solution though. I don't know GitVersion and frankly don't understand why you need this thing. Can your build script not determine the semantic version itself? Clearly setting the sem version is a manual step, because no automation tool would know how to correctly increment the version based on your code changes. So you should pick one place in your project (1 file, like readme notes, or anything else where it makes sense) to set your semantic version and have all other tools read it from there to set assembly versions during the build, package nuget packages, create tags in git, etc..