New to TFS but have managed to set up a vNext build definition and am able to trigger a build that executes successfully.
The build output is placed at
D:\TestAgent_work\c312e966
on the build server. However after every subsequent builds this directory is overwritten with the new build output.
Is there a way of retaining previous builds that include the build version in the folder structure?
Thanks in advance
Use the "Publish Build Artifacts" task to copy the output to either a UNC share or upload it to the server.
Related
I have 2 builds (A & B), which create their own artifacts which are dropped into the $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory) and then published to 'Visual Studio Team Services/TFS'
Everything works fine for build A, but I am finding that when I am wanting to download an artifact from build B, that artifact cannot be found. When I look at the error message, I can see that TFS is actually looking for it from build A.
I dont want to point to a specific build number for build B, instead just want to point to the latest build of B.
Anyone know how I can update the reference so that TFS is looking at build B?
If I use the 'Download Artifact' Task, I can get this to work if I point to a 'Specific Build', but it does not work if I use the option 'Current Build'
Try below steps to achieve that:
Create 2 build definitions to queue Build A and B :
Build Definition A -- Build A
Build Definition B -- Build B
Create a release definition, add Build Definition A and Build Definition B as the artifacts source.
Trigger the release
Release works with multiple artifacts:
UPDATE1:
The Download Artifact task only works on single artifact, multiple artifacts doesn't work.
Besides, why you have to use the Download Artifact task? By default the release definition has enabled the Download Artifact, that means it will download the multiple artifacts automatically, then you just need to use the multiple artifacts directly in other tasks.
UPDATE2:
Since you already linked multiple artifacts in your release definition, that means you have to download them to use on subsequent Phases/tasks. But based on your description seems you want to use the Download Artifact task to down the latest version of one of them. That seems a bit contradictory for your requirements.
I can think of is that you can download the artifacts to a staging folder, then add copy task to copy the artifacts which you need in your phases.
Besides if you want to download all the latest artifacts, you can try this extension: Download Artifacts
I have our Solution on CI build. That works.
When dev's check in changes, the solution builds, but only for changes to that solution.
How do I get the build definition to build on changes to OTHER folder changes outside of the solution?
Yes, I can add a workspace in the workspace sources tab. But that means all that code is downloaded on every build.
Our solution has over a dozen dependencies. I would like to trigger a build if any of those dependencies change. We don't need the dependency source code to download into the build workspace at all. That's just pointless.
Yes, we have a folder in TFS for our Nuget Packages. We check them in automatically on build (Thank you TFS).
I could just add the NugetPackage workspace to the solution's workspace list, BUT that would result in every version of every dependency getting downloaded into the build workspace.
How can I trigger a build on a change that I do NOT list in the workspaces list of the build definition?
Btw, we are using TFS 2012
I was hoping the Cloaking feature would allow for this, but if it's cloaked, the automated build does not trigger. The automated build only fires if the workspace folder is set to active. Which also means download every NugetPackage in that same folder!
It's not able to trigger a CI build on a change which not list in the workspaces list of the build definition.
A few other things to know
Make sure the folders you include in your trigger are also included in your mappings on the Repository tab(the same to
workspace mappings).
Source Link
As a workaround you could set clean workspace to false, which will not get other unchanged files every time.
If your build process does not require a clean workspace or
repository, you can significantly reduce the time that is required to
run the build setting this parameter value to False.
I have a solution with multiple projects where some are web apps. I have set up a multi-configuration build in TFS vNext that builds the single app, creates an MSDeploy package, gets the proper staging configuration files and add or replaces the files in the package archive file.
I'd like to use the deployment files created as artifacts to be used in a Release Management pipeline. The problem is that the artifacts directory is purged before each build (i.e. build of a web application). At the end, only the artefacts of the last app that was built are left there.
I can certainly configure the step to copy the artifacts somewhere else, but then the question is how to delete it only at the very start of the build (and by that I mean the build of all projects).
Is there a way how to disable purging of the artefacts directory or how to perform an operation only at the beginning of the build? Has anyone similar experience?
Use the "Publish Artifacts" task to store the artifacts in a UNC location or in TFS itself so they're available for release.
I have a TFS2015 build definition: after the build step I have a PowerShell step which is publishing the build artifacts.
How can I enabled the Artifacts link in the build summary?
I've noticed that the Artifacts link is visible only when I have a Publish Artifacts build step in the build definition. I can't use this step because I need a specific folders structure in the build drop folder.
The easiest thing might be to use your PowerShell script to prepare your drop as normal but then add the Publish Build Artifacts task so that the artifacts tab of the release is populated.
The example in this article uses $(build.stagingDirectory) to order the files and then specifies that directory in the Copy Root field of the Publish task.
http://www.codewrecks.com/blog/index.php/2015/06/30/manage-artifacts-with-tfs-build-vnext/
I have managed to chain two TFS builds together using Jason Stangroome's chaining build definition template. This gives me the capacity to execute one build definition after the next:
CertificateRepository-CI (Continuous Integration Build)
CertificateRepository-IntegrationTests
The latter will automatically be executed if the former is successful. I am stumped by the lack of Build Definition Templates that are able to download and extract the contents of the preceding build's drop folder and perform actions upon these artifacts, in this case running SpecFlow/NUnit integration tests.
In this case I am using:
Visual Studio Online
Git for the codebase being tested
TFVC for the ALM components (NUnit Adapter, Build Definition Templates)
Any help greatly appreciated.
If you are using TFS for source control: I don't have a template for this but you can follow below steps to achieve this.
In CI build set the Staging Location option to Copy buildoutput to following Source Control folder
Download the drop folder by mapping it in source settings option
in build definition
Under drop location folder in TFS, every CI build will create a new folder, you need to pass this folder name to the second build definition. Please check another post from Jason for passing parameters to second build
Execute the tests by invoking the commandline tools using Invoke
Process activity.