Edit: Typical - you write out the question, restart VS and everything is working. :-) I'll leave it here for others in case they get this issue.
We use the online TFS from Microsoft and have created a build definition using the DefaultTemplate.12.xaml.
This build is run on the default hosted build agent provided by MS. Once the build completes the output of the build is automatically checked into the Source Control under the $/Project/Drops folder, and we can use get latest to get the output.
What I want to do is copy some of the source files to the drop location - such that they too are checked in as part of the build output. Ultimately this will be custom files created by some other part of the build process - but for now simply getting non standard file will be sufficient.
What I've done is edited the TFS Build Template to add a new Copy Directory Activity that copies files from the SourceDirectory to the BinariesDirectory, right before the template's standard copy files from BinariesDirectory to DropLocation.
The MS activity is simply a Copy Directory for BinariesDirectory to DropLocation
I've also tried to do this using InvokeProcess and CMD.EXE /C XCOPY but the custom files are not checked in, only the standard build output.
NB:
Just to reiterate - the TFS & Build agent is completely in the MS controlled cloud, and we have no access to changing the drop location to a UNC or other path, and the output is automatically checked into the $/Project/Drops folder in Source Control.
Related
I want to clone a github repo that uses two different files/folders:
\packages\ - Folder
\Packages - File
However, due to windows not using Case Sensitive File/Directory Names, this isnt working, it gives me the error that the folder cant be renamed because a file already has the same name.
The program that uses this project REQUIRES that there be a no-extension binary text file Packages (Its like a giant file full of control files (If you recognize linux debian youll understand)
But it also requires a folder named \packages\ to hold the json files containing the config data for each control file within Packages
This question is an updated form of this previous question, which is outdated, and doesnt have an answer that solves the problem: Working in git with directories with the same name but different case in Windows
From Windows 10's update in April of 2018, they added a feature to "enable" case-sensitivity on specific directories.
I simply used the command on my github storage directory and now my project works fine.
To use the feature: Open a command prompt window (I dont believe this requires Administrator, it didnt for me)
Copy the full directory path to the folder you want to enable the flag on, type in the console:
fsutil.exe file SetCaseSensitiveInfo #:\Path\To\Directory\Here enable
Paste your C:/D:/E: or whatever Drive path into the location above. Then hit enter.
You DO NOT need to restart your computer, the flag seems to take effect immediately
Info sourced from: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-enable-ntfs-treat-folders-case-sensitive-windows-10#enable_case_sensitivity_ntfs_windows10
I have a home machine and office machine I use to publish websites using Visual Studio 2013. If I make a change from the same machine, and re-publish, just the changes are published, not all files.
However, when using my clone machine at the office, even if I do a get latest, make one small change, and re-publish, all files are published, not just the ones that changed, and not just the ones that have been recompiled. ALL dll files, even third party dlls that have not changed or have been recompiled with a new date, are republished. Same thing happens if my cohort publishes a small change on his machine after I did the last publish. Not a problem if publishing twice from the same machine as then only the changed files are published.
Is there anyway to prevent complete republishing just because a different machine is used to publish than the one used for the last publish? Thanks.
This seems to make "Determining Changes" a lot slower, but for .Net 4.5 [and
up(?)], use this info from:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee942158:
To configure Web Deploy to use checksums instead of dates to determine
which files need to be copied to the server, add the following element
to the .pubxml file (Publish Settings):
<MSDeployUseChecksum>true</MSDeployUseChecksum>
Like this:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<MSDeployUseChecksum>true</MSDeployUseChecksum>
<!— other settings omitted to keep the example short -->
<PublishDatabaseSettings>
<!— this section omitted to keep the example short -->
</PublishDatabaseSettings>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
First of all, I do not understand the behavior of MSBuild+VS2013 and the publishing feature completely as I just started to use the publishing feature myself. I'm looking for a way to speed up publishing via FTP web deploy in VS2013. (I'm not using TFS for a get latest though.)
I would say this is partially explained in a different context at this SO question. The MSBuild process. Timestamps of certain files are being compared and then could indicate MSBuild/VS2013 whether a target (build output) is up-to-date or not. Then files that are not up-to-date are being recompiled.
As you all work on different machines, timestamps are likely to be different quite soon.
To find out what is actually going on during builds/publishes, set build output verbosity to detailed or diagnostic, for a moment:
VS2013 menu - Tools - Options... - Project and solutions - Build and run - output verbosity - set to -> detailed or diagnostic. Run the build, and see the Output panel/tab in VS2013. Select "show output from: Build" to see results if not already visible. Don't forget to set it to the original setting after checking the build details, as it could slow the build down a bit.
But why even unchanged third party dll's are being republished? Possibly because these dll's ARE actually overwritten during a build. You might have the assembly reference property "Copy local" set to true to get your website running without any manual uploads to be done for this. Or you are using a commandline copy command with the overwrite parameter explicitly set to true during project's post build event (like 'copy /y ...' or 'xcopy /y ...'). Then the timestamp of the file that is to be published is overwritten for sure, see in
the "obj\Release\Package\PackageTmp" folder (or for example: "\Debug" instead of "\Release" if Debug build is set for the selected publish profile.)
Furthermore, VS2013 as default does NOT check timestamp differences on the targeted webserver if you are using FTP publishing, at least that is my experience. As for the other publishing options like a web deploy I don't know yet. But the differences you experience seem normal behavior to me, as you run builds on different machines and publishing files from different machines as well. So timestamps are likely to be different... which, again, indicates 'changed' files to be published.
As I'm curious how this question should be solved, I was looking for this in the first place:
Maybe a TFS build server is an option for you, configured with a rolling build. But I read on a specific SO (sorry, can't add more links at this moment as I've just registered) that is suggesting to do clean builds to prevent new problems. And that will force full publishing again as files are all being changed by the clean build... so that won't work I think.
As an answer, you might want to use these FAQ answers on MSDN for web deployments. See the questions:
"Can I exclude specific files or folders from deployment?" .NET 4.0/4.5 and/or
"How to make Web Deploy use file checksums instead of dates to
determine which files were changed?" .NET 4.5 only!
The first option is to exclude files.
The second option is to use a checksum to compare files instead of timestamps, but that could be somewhat slowing the build(?) process, as the FAQ says. Note the first few lines on that FAQ pages, on how you can edit your publishing profile to apply one or both of these elements!
Also it is an option to put the thirdparty dll's in a different project which you then could only include that project in the deploy for a certain solution configuration (VS2013 menu - Build - Configuration Manager, see the checkboxes in the 'deploy' column there for every project. Though I'm not sure if this is part of the VS2013 'publish' feature as a web deployment, because this deploy column checkboxes are greyed out for my solution projects for some reason I don't understand yet... so I can't test it to verify this option.)
Though it sounds logic, don't forget to create backups/copies/screenshots first before you change any settings or publishing profiles, and then change the same settings/configurable files on the other machines you and your colleagues work at.
After using a "GetLatestVersion" to retreive my coworker's new project added to Source Control, we realized that the folder structure was incorrect. He deleted the issues on Source Control and everything looked great there. It runs on his end.
Unfortunately for me, even after running the "GetSpecificVersion" and checking all the overwrite boxes, I cannot get the new version of his project on my local workspace.
Ok.
How now do I delete the project on my end without TFS knowing (so I don't have toCheckInanything and TFS doesn't think it needs to bring anything onto the server from my local workspace).
It makes most sense to me to:
- log out of Source Control, close the project and Visual Studio,
- go into my workspace folder and delete the coworker's broken project
- log back into Source Control, bring up the workspace project in Solution Explorer, and re- "GetLatestVersion" and overwrite files.
Has anyone had this problem before? I'm working in VisualStudio 2012
Are you 100% positive that your co-worker did in fact check in all of his changes that "fixed" it? I would start by double checking that. In team explorer, make certain that they do not have any files that need to be checked in under "Excluded Files".
If you have a TFS Build Server, make certain that the CI build (or you can manually run it) was successful. This will at least prove whether TFS has the project buildng correctly.
If you don't have a TFS build server, have another co-worker pull it down to verify that everything got checked in correctly.
If you are sure that they checked in everything ok and it is still not working for you, try pulling it down to a different directory. Also, you can manually delete your copy of the solution through file explorer and then pull it down again (with the overwrite checked).
I have a larger solution that I desire to distribute via ClickOnce. It consists of one main shell executable that directly references only a small subsection of libraries and processes that constitute the solution.
The solution consists of a few other processes and several libraries (some C++). I need to be able to include all of these libraries and processes in one ClickOnce distribution for both local builds and TFS server builds.
I cannot reference every other library and process form the shell project. And I do not wish to push these files into a MSI to be treated as a prerequisite as it would defeat the purpose of using ClickOnce to distribute/update the product.
What is the correct method to incorporate all of our necessary files/projects into a single ClickOnce distribution?
The IDE won't detect native DLLs as dependencies when publishing, but you can run the SDK tools directly to include them manually in your ClickOnce distribution. You can either use mage.exe in your post-build script or run MageUI.exe to have a wizard to guide you through the package generation.
Suggested reading:
Walkthrough: Manually Deploying a ClickOnce Application
Understanding Dependencies of a Visual C++ Application
There is an alternative to Visual Studio for this kind of situation. You could try using Mage, but it can be a little tricky to use. My company wrote an alternative called ClickOnceMore.
ClickOnceMore is a ClickOnce build tool for when you don't want or can't use Visual Studio to do ClickOnce builds.
There is a specific page on the UI for including files (using rules to include anything from a single file to an entire directory trees) so you should be able to do exactly what you need with it.
This is what I have done in a similar situation. I use TFS at work, so convert the terms to whatever you may use (or not use) for source control.
I have a main workspace that I use for all development of my application, I keep this workspace pristine.
I then created another workspace with a proper name (ex: solution-deploy) and in this workspace I do the following:
Get latest and merge everything from source-control into the deployment workspace
I build a Release build of my application
I r-click on the root (I put them in the root, because I need to access them from there, put them in whatever folder you want) project folder for my deployment project and select "Add -> Existing Item"
I browse in the file selector to the Release directory of the assemblies I want to add to my deployment package, select them, then I use the arrow next to the Add button and drop down to "Add As Link", do this for all of the assemblies you want to add and place them wherever you want them to be organized in your deployment
In the Solution Explorer, select the added assemblies and in the Properties window set the Build Action to "Content", this should be all you have to do, but others have had to also set the "Copy to Output Directory" to "Copy Always", I don't do that
Run a Release Build
Go to the Properties view for your deployment Project
Go to the Publish Tab and Click on the Application Files button
Your files should all be available and added to the Deployment
Set up your ClickOnce settings however you need them to be
Publish your ClickOnce package
Your published package should contain all of the assemblies you need now.
Keep your separate Deployment workspace set up this way and never check it in. Do your work in your development workspace. Whenever a new deployment is needed, open your solution in your Deployment workspace and get the latest code, build, then publish.
I am trying to use TFS storing non-VisualStudio source code. Working with Visual Studio 2012 and Microsoft's online Team Foundation Service.
I've setup a TeamProject and mapped its root to a local folder. All it contains at the moment is a BuildProcessTemplates folder in it. (which was created as part of the TeamProject)
I copied my source code externally (using windows explorer) into the TeamProject root folder on my hard drive and since my TFS workspace is NOT a server workspace but rather a local workspace, I was expecting VS to detect the folders/files and show them in Pending Changes window .... yet it doesn't.
Interestingly, new files in the root folder are detected as "Excluded Changes" but new folders are not detected.
What am I missing?
First make sure the newly added folders contains files.
Are there any Detected changes shown in the Excluded Changes section?
Pending Changes > Detected changes link > The Promote Candidate Changes dialog box appears > check the files you want and click Promote.
I can't say I have ever noticed nor expected TFS to automatically pick up files or folders added to a mapped directory as pending changes.
I always just add them manually using the 'Add existing items' option from the source control view.
It may actually do (or at least be meant to do) the auto-detection, but I can't say I've ever relied on it. I don't think it's something to fret too much about - adding them manually is easy enough, and the 'Add existing items' option is usually smart enough to show you which files are not already under source control, so even if you need to add even more files later, it shouldn't be too much extra effort.