I've been tasked with setting up a new Team Foundation/Build server at my company, with which we'll be starting a new project. Nobody here currently has experience with TFS, so I'm learning all of this on my own. Everything is working so far; The server's been set up, the Repository and Team Project has been created, the Build Server has been created, and I've created a simple hello world application to verify the source control and Continuous Integration builds (on the build server) run properly.
However, I'm having a problem setting up the automatic versioning. I've installed the TfsVersioning project, and it's working fine; I'm able to define a format for my assembly versions. I haven't yet decided what format I'll use; probably something like Major.Minor.Changeset.Revision (I'm aware of the potential problem regarding using the changeset number in the assembly version, so I may decide to switch to Major.Minor.Julian.Revision before we begin development).
The problem:
I don't want assemblies to have new file versions if their source code has NOT changed since the last build. With a continuous Integration build this isn't a problem, as the build server will only grab the source files that have changed, causing an incremental build which produces only updated modules; the existing unchanged modules won't be built, so their version will remain unchanged.
If I set up a nightly build, I'll want to clean the workspace and perform a Build-All. However, this means that ALL assemblies will have new version (assuming the Assembly File Version includes the build number).
A solution?
This has prompted me to consider using the latest changeset number in the Assembly File Version. This way, if nothing has been committed between two successive Build-Alls, the versions won't be incremented. However, this would mean that a change and commit to a single file would force a version increment on ALL assemblies.
I'm looking for one of two things:
A way to only increment Assembly Version Numbers if their source/dependencies have changed since the last build. Successive Build-Alls should not cause changes in version numbers.
OR
A way for testers and non-developers to be able to tell version W.X.Y.Z and version W.X.Y.Z+1 of assembly 'Foo' are identical, even though they have differing file versions.
I've probably read about 20 articles on the subject, and nobody (except this guy) seem to address the issue. If what I'm asking for isn't common practice in the Team Foundation ALM, how do I address the second bullet point above?
Thanks for your time!
This is something I did in the past. The solution has two critical points:
You must use an incremental build, i.e. Clean Workspace = None
The change to AssemblyInfo.cs must be computed at each project
This latter is the most complex and I will just draft the solution here.
In the custom MSBuild properties use CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets to inject an hook in normal Visual Studio compile
/property:CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets=custom.proj
Also forward a value for the version
/property:BuildNumber=1.2.3.4
In custom.proj redefine the target BeforeCompile to something similar
<Target Name="BeforeCompile"
Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);
#(Compile);
#(_CoreCompileResourceInputs);
$(ApplicationIcon);
$(AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile);
#(ReferencePath);
#(CompiledLicenseFile);
#(EmbeddedDocumentation);
$(Win32Resource);
$(Win32Manifest);
#(CustomAdditionalCompileInputs)"
Outputs="#(DocFileItem);
#(IntermediateAssembly);
#(_DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath);
$(NonExistentFile);
#(CustomAdditionalCompileOutputs)"
Condition="'$(BuildNumber)'!=''">
<Message Text="*TRACE* BuildNumber: $(BuildNumber)"/>
<MyTasksThatReplaceAssemblyVersion
BuildNumber="$(BuildNumber)"
File="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs"/>
</Target>
You need to have a task for replacing the AssemblyFileVersion in the AssemblyInfo.cs source. MSBuild Extension Pack has an AssemblyInfo task for this purpose.
I posted the full details at my blog here, here and here.
Related
I am not using ANT at all so the proposed duplicate does answer this question about Jenkins.
I am working on a build script that will increment the version number of the program. To do this the version file will be checked out, next version number computed and written back, and then checked in.
It occurs to me that this will trigger yet another build in an endless cycle. When we used TFS builds we could put a string in the check in comment like ***NOCI*** or something and that check in would be ignored and not trigger a new build.
Is there any such option for Jenkins or a technique I can apply myself to solve this?
I am using the TFS plugin to access my SCM.
The Subversion SCM plugin allows you to specify paths that will be excluded when polling for new versions. Git SCM also can be configured to exclude some regions.
By excludng the file that contains the version number you will be able to avoid the vicious circle that you observed.
Since you cannot cloak or .tfignore your versioning file...you can use the NOCIOption property, and pass in the flag for it, in your comments.
You would setup the NOCIOption property of the SyncWorkspace workflow activity in TFS, and during your version change, pass "****NO_CI***" flag in the comments of the checkin. This is kind of hackish and could be avoided if you used GlobalAssemblyInfo.cs versioning, linked throughout your project instead.
I suggest not using your "versioning" file, as it's fundamentally wrong for the reason of cyclic checkins. I would suggest using the GlobalAssemblyInfo.cs linked throughout your .NET solution and stamping that prior to calling MSBuild. It works like a champ for setting and linking versioning throughout your .NET projects in your solution. You implement Global Assembly Info in your solution as described in this answer here.
You can understand more of it here, at "What are the best practices for using assembly attributes". You could simply stamp this file (via Powershell or whatever) and call MSBuild and your version will be present in all .DLLs.
Technologies:
Proget – Nuget Package management server
TFS – On premise 2017 Update 1
Issue:
When re-releasing a build from TFS release, to re-package a CI Nuget package that has already gone to my Proget development feed, there does not appear to be a way to get automatic Semantic versioning.
The help dialog that appears in regards to setting the version within the Nuget packager setup is as follows.
Use Date and Time If you choose 'Use the date and time', this will
generate a SemVer-compliant version formatted as X.Y.Z-ci-datetime
where you choose X, Y, and Z.
Use an Environment Variable If you choose 'Use an environment
variable', you must select an environment variable and ensure it
contains the version number you want to use.
Use the Build Number If you choose 'Use the build number', this will
use the build number to version you package. Note: Under General set
the build format to be
'$(BuildDefinitionName)_$(Year:yyyy).$(Month).$(DayOfMonth)$(Rev:.r)
I’d like to be able to re-release a Nuget package that has gone from my CI build in TFS to my Proget development feed, over into my production Proget feed. Microsoft has a great article on Versioning NuGet packages in a continuous delivery world. In that article they elude to the fact that they are doing something similar, but they aren’t providing any real direction for how it was accomplished.
Question:
How would you configure the Nuget packager so that upon creating the package you would input a build variable? Or is there a way that you could set the major version and just have the minor increment each time? How are others handling the promotion of packages from development to production?
Have tried the following:
Tried $(Version) as a build & release variable, and it doesn’t seem to work. The package gets tagged with the date. Also, this only seems to be really functional in the Build portion of TFS where the modal window contains a spot to modify this value.
Tried using the date & time method, and it sticks CI into the build number. This is almost exactly what we want minus the CI definition. Because it automatically inserts CI, this is not suitable for production.
Turned it off and it pulls the version from the Nuspec, but then this would assume that in your CI build you are always upping the version number to one more than current after you have pushed your last release version. This is because the nuspec is in the build files that you are re-releasing through the TFS release chain. Confusing to say the least.
Use the build number set to $(BuildDefinitionName)$(Year:yyyy).$(Month).$(DayOfMonth)$(Rev:.r) What I’d like here is $(Major).$(Minor).$(Patch). Trying $(Version)$ with a version of 1.0.0 gets you a file named with that has 2017.11.3.1 as the output, seemingly ignoring the $(Version) variable.
Not sure if I totally got your point, seems you would like to create a semantically versioned nupkg after ci process on TFS.
Usually the nupkg should be as shown MSVersioningSample: 1.0.8-ci-20171106-156033.nupkg
However you would like to rename nupgk and republish it to nuget server as the release version simply MSVersioningSample: 1.0.8.nupkg The same as $(Major).$(Minor).$(Patch).
You need to edit NuGetPackager.ps1 in the build agent, change the $VersionRegex value, details you could have a look at the answer in this question: How do I get TFS 2015 to parse 3 digit versioning for NuGet packaging
Also give a try with some 3-rd party extension to handle with Semantic Versioning in TFS build, release task, nuget package, a sample for your reference: Semantic Versioning Build and Release Tasks
Besides just a note: Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 is only supports with NuGet 4.3.0+ and Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3+.
I'm currently looking at a TFS build server setup & I was trying to set up a process whereby I can set up a build template to build to a folder based on the version number of a .NET assembly that's part of the build (As per the assemblyinfo.cs file). I've got it building to the standard looking folder ("Release_20130502.1"), but that's not exactly useful in 4 months time when we want to find the build for the v1.1.0 release.
Basically I want to make a special build template which will create a major release, and I'd like the folders it makes to be more noticable as versions rather than timestamps. I'm also hoping to automatically label the release as that version too. I know how to copy the files & make labels, but I'm not sure how to get at the version numbers.
I'd also love if I could get this into the Build Name recorded in TFS somehow but I suspect that might be a bit optimistic.
Does anyone have any idea how to do this (Or alternatively any other technique that'll get me easily recognizable release version builds)?
Take a look at build number format property for build definitions this is used to generate the build number and in turn the build folder during build and label in sourcecontrol if its enabled, you can modify this manualy to pass desired build number. The mentioned drop folder can be manually given as well. And you can always copy the folder after build by hand.
You can use revision variable to create something that works similiar to what you want, Revision number gets incremented if there is build with same name in system
Format: Release v1.$(Rev).0 - this would give you Release v1.1.0, Release v1.2.0, ... on each build
You will have to customize build definition with custom activity for your defined goal to work without manual interaction. However with details you have provided this approach has issues - each project has its own assembly info - which one do you use, what if they are different? This should get you started.
http://www.ewaldhofman.nl/post/2010/04/20/Customize-Team-Build-2010-e28093-Part-1-Introduction.aspx
You can take a look at these may find something useful
http://tfsbuildextensions.codeplex.com/
It all comes down how often do these build take place, if its week or more then doing it by hand is perfecly valid aproach in my book.
We're using Team Foundation Service instead of a local TFS.
Our solution was created on Visual Studio 2012.
My problem is now that we want all assemblies to have the same version number (this part is already solved by using a CommonAssemblyInfo.cs that is linked into all projects).
The issue I'm facing right now is that we need the tfs changeset number at the last digit of the assembly version (e.g. 1.0.0.4711 where 4711 is the changeset number).
I've found several examples, but none of them worked for me.
And yes, I especially searched here on stackoverflow a lot.
I also have to admit that I've never looked into the MSBuild scripts...
Can anyone please give me a hint on how to accomplish this?
Is it for example possible to use the MSBuild Extension Pack on Team Foundation Service (not local TFS) and if, how to do that?
As always, time is my worst enemy...
Note that from 2010 Tfs employs Windows workflow for building the package the workflow calls msbuild for compiling the projects only - while its possible to pass changeset this way to msbuild its rather more hops.
Following deals with your problem, however the linked solution is more complex that needed:
Can assembly version been automatically updated with each TFS 2010 Build?
This is one of best series of tutorials on the custom build activities, the author is on stack as well i believe, one specificly about versioning
http://www.ewaldhofman.nl/post/2010/05/13/Customize-Team-Build-2010-e28093-Part-5-Increase-AssemblyVersion.aspx
In short you need a custom activity to run before compilation on source files, find all CommonAssemblyInfo.cs files, feed this list to your custom activity, it modifies the values inside with passed value of full version number or only the changeset and optionaly check in the change (probably not since your changeset will be out of sync then).
You can also take a look at https://tfsbuildextensions.codeplex.com/ set of activities there is TfsVersion activity among them, at the very least it will provide examples.
Functionality need for this should be available through Team Explorer and source control - The Custom activity assemblies and build templates usually are located in folder in your team project root - the location of this folder is defined for build controller you can change this through team explorer build section.
Changeset is available from value BuildDetail.SourceGetVersion, not sure if this was fixed/changed in 2012 however there were 2 issues about this value in 2010
Its doesnt respect GetVersion override in default build template - you will manualy need to update if override is used
When running latest build (no override) it will get the last changeset number from tfs - depending on your branches this may not be the same as 'last' changeset for the branch of build. You will either have to live with this, provide overrides for each build or implement activity that checks branch history for last changeset value and overrides it again.
It should be noted that GetVersion should be able to accept any sourcespec version - changeset, date, label etc. I havent played around with this enough to provide more details to you.
Colin Dembovsky wrote a great overview of doing version embedding using the new pre-build script setting in TFS 2013 build definitions.
The Changeset number is easily accessible within the pre-build process in the environment variable TF_BUILD_SOURCEGETVERSION. I was able to use this to embed the Changeset value in our binaries using a script based on Dembovsky's work above. (I used Perl, not powershell, so you probably don't want to see it ;-)
This approach doesn't require any changes to the build workflow which makes it a big win for me.
I've used Wintellect's solution - MSBuild-only, no TFS magic needed. I also added to the auto-generated CSharp file:
[assembly:AssemblyInformationalVersion("$(BuildNumber)")]
So I get the TFS build number.
We have an automated build and QA process for our software, using tfs/teambuild and msbuild, and we want to be able to know (for audit purposes) whether a component has gone through that process or not.
For example, if a library is installed on a user's machine, I'd like to be able to inspect it in some way to tell that it went through the build. In particular, I want to be able to distinguish it from components built directly on a developer's machine, and then manually installed.
What is the best way to do this? Code signing as part of the build process seems closest to these requirements, but presumably this would not cover any 3rd-party libraries that might be used? I also read about the ILMerge tool to merge all assemblies into one, but then I don't know enough to work out whether they can then be signed or not?
I'm sure we're not the first people to have the requirement, so casting around for any ideas or hints from others who might have done such a thing
Thanks!
Our developer builds are set to keep the versions at "0.0.0.0", but our build server marks the build based on a pre-configured version and automagically generated build string. "1.0.3.xxx". Your build server doesn't allow for this?
Your build process should be updating each of your projects assemblyinfo.cs files (or a global linked equivalent), you can do this with the TFS changeset number, so like the previous poster indicated you end up with the property on each dll of 1.0.changeset.buildno or something similar. You can do this easily in msbuild.
You could have the values of each assembly info file set in source control to be something obvious like 0 or 999.
A lot of what your asking is about process and training as well though.
If your using installers or zips to package your deliverables then you can also label them with the build number as part of your build process.
But if you have changeset you have the link from dll to code, so traceable, coupled with links to third party dll references as defined in each csproj.