Here is my situation.
I setup a build definition for continuous integration using the new workflow system. Then I targeted this definition to a particular solution. I checked-in my solution many times without a problem and the builds have all passed flawlessly on the server.
This morning, I notice that it has been executed but I did not checked-in the solution. I finally discover that when a colleague checked-in another solution, it executed the definition for the solution I am working on.
I am using the original ProcessTemplate.xaml file. I only want this build definition to be executed when I check-in a particular solution or a set of solution I chose. What do I miss here?
Thanks.
There are two things you need to do,
1. Edit build defination and click on the process tab, change the 'Items to Build' to the solution that you are interested to be build as part of your build.
2. Click on the workspace tab and point it only to the branch or specifically to the folder which logically excludes the solutions that you would like to exlude from this ci build.
Make sure you carry these steps across your build definations.
HTH.
Cheers, Tarun
Related
We have lots of feature branches, and we don't want to manually create a build definition for each of them for continuous integration.
Is it possible to create one build definition in TFS Build 2015 that will build solution from the branch when code is checked in to it? We are using TFVC for source control.
Preferably, only the active branches should be downloaded to the build agent, as we have a lot of old branches that don't get any check-ins.
There is a similar question about old TFS Build system, but since build system was completely changed in TFS 2015, the answer would be different too - TFS build, one build for many branches
Short answer: No.
This works for Git, not for TFVC, unfortunately.
Actually, it would appear to work out of the box with TFS 2015 Update 2, according to a test I just ran with the following simple structure...
$/Project
$/Project/Product1/Solution1/
$/Project/Product1/Solution1/solution1.sln
: (and everything below it)
$/Project/Product1/Solution1-branch/solution1.sln
: (and everything branched below it)
$/Project/Product1/Feature2/another-solution1.sln
: (and everything below it)
Build settings:
Build tab | Solution should be "**\*.sln", Repository tab | Repository should be "Project" and Mappings should include "$/Project/Product1/".
The ** in the Solution field causes it to search recursively for *.sln files, which it then builds in sequence.
I just tried this and it built all branches one after the other.
Excluding "old" branches might be more difficult if you use the single recursive approach, but you could always simply list the desired branches in the Mappings area - the nett result should be the same.
Hope that helps.
If I understand your question, this might work for you.
This will build all feature branches, plus the develop (default) branch as part of CI.
Not sure why, but if you reverse the order of these it does not work.
Ok so I have to admit, I'm very new to all of this build automation stuff. But basically what I'm wondering is if there is a way to wire up my build definitions in such a way that if I have a case like so
ProjectA produces ComponentA.dll
ProjectB references ComponentA.dll and produces ComponentB.dll
ProjectC references ComponentB.dll
then when I make changes to ProjectA and check them in, the build process would automatically also build ProjectB, and finally ProjectC, and report any errors.
So is there a way to accomplish this, or should this type of thing be handled somehow completely differently in the first place?
The process you are referring to is the crux of the practice known as Continuous Integration.
TFS does it very well: simply set your build definition Trigger to Continuous Integration and set the Workspace working folder to the parent folder of the three projects. This way, any change in one of the projects will trigger a build.
MSDN: Build and Deploy Continuously
You can use a visual studio solution and use project references between the projects. Then build the solution on your build server.
Currently we are using StarTeam to perform the build as well as versioning. we planned to migrate startteam to TFS2010. We have some script for perform the build. i wanted to change this script according to my requirement. i gone through the TFS but i had lot more confusion.
in StarTeam, we will get a files from "Ready to Build" label and perform the build. In TFS, how we are going to get a files from TFS? What concept should i use to get a files and perform the build? i have gone through the lot of commands like get, check-in, checkout etc..
If we use "tf get" command, we can get all the files from TFS but i have a clarification on that. shall i get all the files from TFS for every build? i hope, this is unnecessary headache.. correct me if i am wrong..
how we perform the build in TFS? i have read some types of build such as manual, gatedcheckin, Continuous Integration and schedule.
Is there any relationship between branch and build activities?
In TFS, What is the meaning of Workspace?
As said, many questions in one. Hope this helps along the way:
A workspace is a mapping between the server and a local storage,
similar to checkout in Subversion, view in ClearCase, etc.
"TF get" normally only fetches those files that have changed since
last update. You can force it to fetch everything - and sometimes
have to - but its not normally done.
Team Build is the recommended system to build with when using TFS. It can take some time to get into (Windows Workflow-based), but is quite powerful. There are default process definitions that set up the most common actions for you.
By default, you can't control whether to build by setting a certain label, but you can define that only this label should be used when builds are triggered. Labels in TFS work a little differently compared to other VCS, though, so maybe there's an 'opportunity' to re-think your build process along the way. If you're set on using a label as before, you'll need to build a Custom build activity.
I've seen the question related to the error message you get from TFS when a workspace is already mapped. The accepted answer for removing the workspace is alright as a workaround, but it's already getting tedious to run a delete command each time this error occurs.
What do I need to change in order to get out of having to use this workaround? I've got two builds (continuous integration and nightly deploy), and need to add at least one more build type. I followed this URL to see if there was a possible resolution there, but I'm not sure I understand it completely.
I am not sure how this is accomplished in TFS 2010, as I have not gotten to work with Team Build in 2010, yet. In 2008, though, if you expand the Builds node in the Team Project and right-right click on either of the builds, you will see a "Manage Build Agents..." option. Click into that, and it will bring up a dialog. One of the things on that dialog is an option called "Working Directory". Do you have the same hard-coded path in both of them?
By default, when you create a new build definition, it provides a calculated folder for this value. This is where the build agent will do the checkout from TFS for the build attempt. The default value is, $(Temp)\$(BuildDefinitionPath), I believe (I am not connected to TFS at the moment).
The article you link to is basically saying that you should include either that $(BuildDefinitionPath) value or the $(BuildDefinitionID) value as part of that path in that dialog so that the two builds do not try to use the same workspace. Changing the working folder to include one of those values should resolve your issue, going forward.
I have a Team Foundation Server 2008 Installation and a separate machine with the Team Build service.
I can create team builds and trigger them manually in Visual Studio or via the command line (where they complete successfully). However check ins to the source tree do not cause a build to trigger despite the option to build every check in being ticked on the build definition. Update: To be clear I had a fully working build definition with the CI option enabled.
The source tree is configured is a pretty straight forward manner with code either under a Main folder or under a Branch\branchName folder. Each branch of code (including main) has a standard Team Build definition relating to the solution file contained within. The only thing that is slightly changed from default settings is that the build server working folder; i.e. for main this is Server:"$\main" Local:"c:\build\main" due to path length.
The only thing I've been able to guess at (possible red herring) is that there might be some oddity with the developer workspaces. Currently each developer maps Server:"$\" to local:"c:\tfs\" so that there is only one workspace for all branches. This is mainly to avoid re-mapping problems that some of the developers had previously gotten themselves into. But I can't see how this would affect CI.
UPDATE: Ifound the answer indirectly; please read below
Ok I have found the answer myself after several dead ends. In the end I fixed this unintentionally while fixing another issue. Basically we had just turned on the automatic execution of unit tests for our builds. The test would run sucessfully but then immediately the build would bomb out with a message saying it was unable to report to the build drop folder.
What was happening was that while the Build service runs under one account and has a set of rights; some of the functionality is actually driven through the TFSService account. fter wading a heap of permissions I had my tests being reported. Then I noticed that builds had started to trigger on check-ins; I can't tell you exactly which permission fixed this but hopefully this answer will at least set people down the right path.
One other note a few of the builds started failing due to conflicting workspace mappings - this was a separate issue that I resolved by deleting some obsolete workspaces using the Attrice Sidekicks for Team Foundation tool.
Hope this helps somebody else.
Select your team project from team explorer, then right click on the Builds folder. Select a new build definition and then select the trigger tab. Move the radio button to "Build each check-in (more builds)"
More info can be found here
MSDN How to: Create a Build Definition
Are there any errors in the log on the TFS application server? Anything that indicates that it tried to fire but failed?