TFS Build Script Definition - Not Getting Latest Code - tfs

For one of our build scripts (TFS 2013), when we run it manually or during Check-In (Continuous Integration trigger), the build script is not picking up the latest code changes. We looked in the logs and it does have the correct changeset number for the impacted files (in this case .vb files). We tried with several different .vb files. We also tried recreating the build script from scratch to no avail. We have several other build scripts for similar web applications that have no issues with the same build settings. This project builds fine. We set the Clean Build to True. Configurations is set to "Any CPU|Release". Output Location is set to SingleFolder. Build Template is set to TfvcTemplate.12.xaml. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

So, after a bit of kicking the tires we figured it out. We had the actual compiled .dll in this case checked into TFS. Hence, the build server would grab the old version that was checked in versus compiling the project on the fly. We removed the .dll from source control to resolve the issue.

Related

Getting not found SourceFolder in TFS 2015 build

We're experiencing problems with a build, since had been working fine up until last week Thursday. Now we get this error whenever it runs:
Not found SourceFolder:
C:\agent_work\34\s\PharmacyWarehouse\PharmacyWarehouse\bin\release\app.publish
This is in our test build environment. It fails on the Copy Files task. Both the source and destination folders are on the build server, so I think Copy Files would be fine. Here's our environment for test:
According to your description and error message. This may related to cache for build agent/server.
When you add a Visual Studio Build / MSBuild task to build the project, make sure you have checked the Clean option or set Clean=True. Thus it will delete all got source and generated build output which generated from prior builds.
Clean Option : Set to False if you want to make this an incremental build. This setting might reduce your build time,
especially if your codebase is large. This option has no practical
effect unless you also set Clean repository to False.
Set to True if you want to rebuild all the code in the code projects.
This is equivalent to the MSBuild /target:clean argument.
Also check if there are enough drive space in your build agent/server.
Besides, you could also reinstall build agent or upgrade your build agent version. This will force delete/recreate working folder. Which may do the trick.

how to build only check in code Files and How to get only check in code artifacts in tfs for that build?

Actually first code is built and deployed after some updates developer changed the code and check-in the files now I want to build that files or folder and get that files artefact in drop folder? as well as how to deploy those files? in Tfs 2017 and it will automatically build only check-in files.
What you would like is to have an incremental build. When you add a Visual Studio Build / MSBuild task to build the project, just uncheck the Clean option. Thus it will sync the source and only get the changed files from the second time to build. See
Build task Arguments for details.
Clean Option : Set to False if you want to make this an incremental build. This setting might reduce your build time,
especially if your codebase is large. This option has no practical
effect unless you also set Clean repository to False.
Set to True if you want to rebuild all the code in the code projects.
This is equivalent to the MSBuild /target:clean argument.
However for artifacts, TFS always delivered all files - changed and unchanged.
It does copy all of the project output (subsequent projects that
depend on it may depend on these assemblies and files being there).
This causes incremental builds to be much faster, but it doesn't "only
deliver the changed files". It always delivers all files whether they
are changed or unchanged.
You could take a look at jessehouwing's reply in this question about this part: Incremental Builds issue in Team Foundation Server

Linked file in WCF RIA service does not build in TFS Build server

I've just setup a TFS (2012) server and now I'm trying to build the complete code (written in .NET 4.0 in VS 2010) via the TFS Build server. But in my solutions I have also a WCF RIA project which contains linked files because they are used somewhere else also and there is no possibility to add a reference to a general .NET binary in WCF/Silverlight.
Everything builds without any problem on my development machine but when I check it all in, create a standard build definition and run that build definition I get the following problem. The linked files have usings (UsingNamespace for example) to other projects that are also build by us and build before the WCF/Silverlight but the following error pops up while building through TFS Build server:
The type or namespace 'UsingNamespace' could not be found (are you
missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)'
Is there any solution for this problem that I looked over?
EDIT 1
Just tried to set the Copy to Output Directory propertie of the linked files to Copy Always but this still gives me the same error as I was expecting. The problem is that the linked file is placed somewhere that it can use the usings but the WCF RIA service cannot access/find that using.
EDIT 2
Just tried out my local test TFS where I can do what I want and there I made a build definition with just the solutions needed to make that the project with the linked files builds. This worked without any problem. Then I tried the same on our TFS server with a new build definition that has the same solutions as on my test TFS and here it did not work. The only difference that I know for sure is that my test TFS is TFS 2012 Update 1 and that my production TFS does not have the update 1 yet. I'll try to install it next week.
EDIT 3
I've just updated our production TFS to Update 1 but it is still not working with my temporary build definition which only contains the projects that are needed to build the silverlight application with the linked files. The 2 workspaces are the same on both server and the projects to build are also the same.
You need to specify the workspace information in the Build Definition for the build to use. The workspaces are what the build process copies from source control to the build server. If you don't have everything in the build server's workspace, it can't build properly.
The Source Control Folder in the workspace tab is the location of the files you need from TFS. The Build Agent Folder is a relative path from the build server's pre-defined base location. You'll usually use $(SourceDir)\Folder to specify the "Folder" that your build process needs.
This sounds like an $(Outdir) problem. A build definition in TFS automatically overrides the Bin folder. All Binaries are redirected to the bin folder upon compile. Sounds to me that you are using a mixture of project references and file references. The file references are probably what is causing your build failures.
Example if you compile in the same build the following solutions
Solution1.sln (TFS Build Pass)
project1.csproj
project2.csproj (references project 1)
Solution2.sln (TFS Build Failure)
project3.csproj (references binary output of project 1)
Expectations from TFS out of the box without customizing your workflow is that this simple build will fail. The reason is that in your development box all projects produce output to one destination while in a tfs build your projects will build to $(Outdir).
Some Things to try
Simple (best practice in my view)
Create 1 solution and use project references instead of file references.
Complex
Build using MSBuild project files
Modify your windows workflow to not override the $(Outdir)
Copy the binaries after a build is complete.
Best practice on Automating Builds
Build from command line
Build from cmd a NON vs2010 command line.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe FullpathtoSolutionFile.sln
Cheers!
Apparently there was just missing the WCF RIA services V1.0 SP2 on the TFS server. If that was installed the problem was solved.

TFS Build Agent Issue

We've just set up our first Build Agent with TFS to run unit tests on a separate server from our main build. This will be great but we have an error that doesn't seem to have a good answer:
DLL has already loaded from a different location. It cannot be loaded from a new location within the same appdomain.
The DLL is of course a specific library within out project.
Anyone have experience with this issue?
Thanks!
It turns out we were using the wrong build configuration. It was defaulting to a release build and this build had a requirement to run unit tests that were not being compiled.
Once we changed to a dev build with all of the projects included it worked perfectly.
All is well.

TFS 2008 Continuous integration MSBUILD on Branch fails on Label

I am attempting to use CI on a Branch of one of my TFS projects. MSBuild only fails when I try to use a Branch. I point the same Build at the "trunk" project it works fine.
The error I receive from the build log:
Task "Label"
Label TeamFoundationServerUrl="http://TFSServer:8080/"
BuildUri="vstfs:///Build/Build/6763"
Name="Test_SF_20090619.1"
Scope="$/MyProject" Recursive=True
Comments="Label created by Team Build"
Version="BuildServer3D143_66"
Child="Replace" Files="$/" C:\Program
Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(812,5,812,5):
error : No matching items found in $/
in your workspace.
Done executing task "Label" -- FAILED.
Done building target "CoreLabel" in project
"TFSBuild.proj" -- FAILED.
I believe this error is being caused by a lack of source files getting copied to the Build server.
Get task excerpt from build log:
Task "Get"
Get TeamFoundationServerUrl="http://TFSServer:8080/"
BuildUri="vstfs:///Build/Build/6768"
Force=True Overwrite=False
PopulateOutput=False Preview=False
Recursive=True Version="C204806"
Workspace="BuildServer3D143_66"
Done executing task "Get".
This is a full build. There should be about a thousand files listed in the GET.
General Information
TFS 2008
Visual Studio 2008
Established build server (been
running builds for the last year)
Project being branched is a ASP.NET
web stie (2.0 Framework).
Full Build Params
/p:SkipClean=false
/p:SkipInitializeWorkspace=false
/p:ForceGet=true
/p:IncrementalBuild=false
/p:IncrementalGet=false
note: I know IncrementalBuild is redundent but I just wanted to be sure.
Questions:
Are there restrictions on builds off a branch?
Any idea why MSBuild fails to pull files from the branch workspace?
If it's for CI then you're most likely doing an Incremental Get. TFS will only bother to get files it thinks have changed since its last get - e.g. if you delete any files from your server, it will still think you have those files so it won't get them again. In this case you'll need to run the build once with the incremental properties turned off so that it forces a full get of the source. You can do this by overriding the properties in the MSBuild command line box in the Queue Build dialog with:
/p:IncrementalGet=false;ForceGet=true
Another possibility that springs to mind is that the Label task is confused by your branch. It may be that your workspace is set up incorrectly, so check that you're mapping in everything it needs.
I had two issues in this case.
First, the branch security did not give rights to the build service account. I had restricted the branch to our team's Tech Leads and Release Engineers. The build service account needed access as well. What tipped me of was while searching the internet I stumbled upon a posting by someone who had made the same mistake.
The second issue was a little more involved. While cleaning up my build project file, I removed the following section.
<SolutionToBuild Include="$(BuildProjectFolderPath)/../../_stage/MyProject/MySolution.sln">
<Targets></Targets>
<Properties></Properties>
</SolutionToBuild>
Which worked fine on projects I had already built at least once, but if this was a new build, that had not copied source files to the build server, then there would be no files and the build would fail.
Some of you may wonder if my other builds were working either, after all wouldn’t they have old build files. Yes, but I had targets defined that did all the work I actually cared about. So the SolutionToBuild is a little frivalous.

Resources