Run a powershell script from TFSBuild.Proj file - powershell

I have added a code piece in my MS build file to run a powershell script. But while building it gives me a error error MSB4067: The element "Exec" beneath element "Project" is unrecognized.
Below is the code:
<PropertyGroup>
<PowerShellExe Condition=" '$(PowerShellExe)'=='' ">
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
</PowerShellExe>
<ScriptLocation Condition=" '$(ScriptLocation)'=='' ">
D:\Synopsis\SynopsysDetect.ps1
</ScriptLocation>
</PropertyGroup>
<Exec Command="%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -command ^"^& {^&&apos;D:\Synopsis\SynopsysDetect.ps1&apos;} ^"" />
Not sure if the issue is with code or have I placed the code piece at the wrong place. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Moving the above piece of code completely into the "Target" tag fixed the issue.

MSB4067 is "UnrecognizedChildElement". It means that the element containing this line doesn't "know" the exec command. Since the tag </PropertyGroup> is above your line, I have no idea how your structure look like. Please share more of the file blurring confidential parts.
Also see that TFS has a "Run powershell step" that you can use.

Related

In MsBuild, how do I run something PowerShell and have all errors reported [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Any good PowerShell MSBuild tasks?
Powershell doesn't seem to have an easy way to trigger it with an arbitrary command and then bubble up parse and execution errors in a way that correctly interoperates with callers that are not PowerShell - e.g., cmd.exe, TeamCity etc.
My question is simple. What's the best way for me with OOTB MSBuild v4 and PowerShell v3 (open to suggestions-wouldnt rule out a suitably production ready MSBuild Task, but it would need to be a bit stronger than suggesting "it's easy - taking the PowerShell Task Factory sample and tweak it and/or becoming it's maintainer/parent") to run a command (either a small script segment, or (most commonly) an invocation of a .ps1 script.
I'm thinking it should be something normal like:
<Exec
IgnoreStandardErrorWarningFormat="true"
Command="PowerShell "$(ThingToDo)"" />
That sadly doesn't work:-
if ThingToDo fails to parse, it fails silently
if ThingToDo is a script invocation that doesn't exist, it fails
if you want to propagate an ERRORLEVEL based .cmd result, it gets hairy
if you want to embed " quotes in the ThingToDo, it won't work
So, what is the bullet proof way of running PowerShell from MSBuild supposed to be? Is there something I can PsGet to make everything OK?
You can use the following example:
<InvokeScript Condition="..."
PowerShellProperties="..."
ScriptFile="[PATH TO PS1 FILE]"
Function="[FUNCTION TO CALL IN PS1]"
Parameters="..."
RequiredOutputParams="...">
<!-- You can catch the output in an Item -->
<Output TaskParameter="OutputResults"
ItemName="Output" />
</InvokeScript>
This can be used in MSBuild.
Weeeeelll, you could use something long winded like this until you find a better way:-
<PropertyGroup>
<__PsInvokeCommand>powershell "Invoke-Command</__PsInvokeCommand>
<__BlockBegin>-ScriptBlock { $errorActionPreference='Stop';</__BlockBegin>
<__BlockEnd>; exit $LASTEXITCODE }</__BlockEnd>
<_PsCmdStart>$(__PsInvokeCommand) $(__BlockBegin)</PsCmdStart>
<_PsCmdEnd>$(__BlockEnd)"</PsCmdEnd>
</PropertyGroup>
And then 'all' you need to do is:
<Exec
IgnoreStandardErrorWarningFormat="true"
Command="$(_PsCmdStart)$(ThingToDo)$(_PsCmdEnd)" />
The single redeeming feature of this (other than trapping all error types I could think of), is that it works OOTB with any PowerShell version and any MSBuild version.
I'll get my coat.

Why is PowerShell's $LastExitCode Variable Always 0 After a Failed Build with MSBuild?

I've noticed that when MSBuild fails, the value of the $LastExitCode variable is always 0. I'm on Windows 7, with MSBuild v4.0 and PowerShell 2.0. This is my MSBuild scritpt:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Fail">
<Target Name="Fail">
<Error />
</Target>
</Project>
When I run:
msbuild.exe MyProject.csproj
I can see in the output that MSBuild fails, but when I check $LastExitCode, it has a value of 0. Anyone know what might be going on?
I've tried setting $(ErrorActionPreference) to Stop, but that didn't work. I re-opened a new PowerShell window, that didn't work either.
I ran into a problem recently. It turned out some code in my profile that was updating $lastexitcode- the code was a custom prompt generator. Try running powershell without your profile with "powershell -noprofile" to see if the problem could be code in your profile.
Consider checking the value $?
Its false if $lastexitcode is nonzero... It works for me even when $lastexitcode did not.
$LASTEXITCODE is for win32 executables and $? is for PS commands. What is the value of %errorlevel% when you run the msbuild.exe from cmd?
Please read http://techibee.com/powershell/what-is-lastexitcode-and-in-powershell/1847 if you want to know more about difference between these two special variables.

Exception running powershell script from MSBuild Exec Task

i´m having a problem with MSBuild and Powershell. There is a PS-script that i want to execute within the MSBuild exec-Task.
The Problem: Running the Script direct from CMD works, but running the script within MSBuild I get an error.
Here the MSBuild script:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ExtensionPack\4.0\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks"/>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
<PropertyGroup>
<PathToSvnClient>C:\Program Files (x86)\CollabNet\Subversion Client</PathToSvnClient>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- set Folder to Svn Repository for svn info command-->
<SvnFolder Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\.."/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="SvnInfo">
<!-- get SVN Revision and Repository Path -->
<SvnInfo LocalPath="%(SvnFolder.FullPath)" ToolPath="$(PathToSvnClient)">
<Output TaskParameter="Revision" PropertyName="Revision" />
<Output TaskParameter="RepositoryPath" PropertyName="RepositoryPath" />
</SvnInfo>
</Target>
<Target Name="SetProductVersion" DependsOnTargets="SvnInfo">
<Exec Command="powershell -file "Scripts\SetSth.ps1" -PARAM "$(PathToSth)" -SVNID $(Revision) -SVNFOLDER "$(RepositoryPath)"" LogStandardErrorAsError="true" ContinueOnError="false"/>
</Target>
The Command is executed exactly the same way as on CMD, but i get an exception from the Powershell Script for the SVNFOLDER param.
The Command that is executed looks like this:
powershell -file "Scripts\SetSth.ps1" -PARAM "C:\abc\cde" -SVNID 1234
-SVNFOLDER "https://domain/svn/rep/branches/xy%20(Build%2012)"
So from CMD it works, from within MSBuild not. I have no idea why. I hope you got an idea.
What about this approach playing with double and singles quotes:
<Target Name="SetProductVersion" DependsOnTargets="SvnInfo">
<Exec Command="powershell -command "& {Scripts\SetSth.ps1 -PARAM '$(PathToSth)' -SVNID '$(Revision)' -SVNFOLDER '$(RepositoryPath)'}"" LogStandardErrorAsError="true" ContinueOnError="false"/>
</Target>
Double check your paths.
Remember, powershell invoked in this way runs as Msbuild.exe under whatever user is executing the build. To msbuild.exe, a straight call to cmd.exe is going to start in the working directory where msbuild lives.
Assume -file "Scripts\SetSth.ps1" references C:\users\yourusername\Scripts\SetSth.ps1
So for you, calling cmd.exe and running that may work just fine, b/c your working directory is going to match C:\users\yourusername
For msbuild.exe, its likely unable to find that file, as its starting in something like *C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0*
So it's looking for C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0\Scripts\SetSth.ps1
I would try making that file path fully qualified. If that still doesn't work, have cmd.exe dump its results into a property and have msbuild log it. Then you can review the paths.

nunit won't redirect console output

I'm using nunit 2.5 and when I try the following
nunit-console.exe "C:\Work\classLib\Data.Tests\bin\Debug\data.tests.dll" /out:output.txt
it still displays it on the console.
I can redirect ALL output by > output.txt of the whole command, but this doesn't work running in the context of NANT.
Any ideas?
EDIT: The NANT command is
<exec program="C:\Program Files\NUnit 2.5\bin\net-2.0\nunit-console.exe
" commandline="C:\Work\classLib\Data.Tests\bin\Debug\Data.Tests.dll
" workingdir="C:\Work\classLib\Data.Tests\bin\Debug" output="output.txt" />
Cheers
Duncan
/out=output.txt appears to be saving only items written out using Console.Writeline
The details of the test run are stored in an xml file, which you can redirect using the /xml switch.

deploy tools: get a list of actions the tool will execute without executing the deploy script

We're in the process of evaluating MSBuild and Nant for deploys. We may roll our own tool. One thing that a different business unit -- let's call it DeptA -- would really like to have (as in it better have it) is the ability for someone in DeptA to read the script and see what it will do. Currently we do this with .bat files. We hates the bat files. Nasty nasty bat files's. But if we ask DeptA to learn a new script language (nant, msbuild) they may be resistant.
Ideally the build tool of choice would be able kick out a list of actions without doing anything else. Along the lines of:
Stop service ABC on server Z
Stop service DEF on server Z
Copy all files from
\server\dirA\dirB to \server2\dirC
Start service ABC on server Z
Start service DEF on server Z
Run all scripts in dir
\server\dirA\dirC
Is it possible to do this with MSBuild? NAnt? Without me re-learning XSL?
If I was you I would actually blend MSBuild and MSDeploy. You should have your MSBuild script perform the actions like start/stop service etc. Then let MSDeploy to the file copy. With MSDeploy you can use the -whatif switch to indicate that you only want a report of the actions to be executed instead of actually executing it. MSBuild unfortunately doesn't offer such an option out of the box you will have to "build" that into your scripts. You can do this with properties and conditions. For example it might look something like this:
<Project ...>
<PropertyGroup>
<!--
Create the property to use, and declare a default value.
Here I've defaulted this to true because it is better to force the
caller to explicitly specify when to perform the action instead of it
being the default.
-->
<SimulateExecution Condition= '$(SimulateExecution)'==''>true</SimulateExecution>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Deploy">
<Message Text="Deploy started" />
<Message Text="Stop service ABC on server Z"/>
<WindowsService ... Condition=" '$(SimulateExecution)'=='false' "/>
<Message Text="Stop service DEF on server Z"/>
<WindowsService ... Condition=" '$(SimulateExecution)'=='false' "/>
<!-- Call MSDeploy with the Exec task. -->
<PropertyGroup>
<MSDeployCommand>...\msdeploy.exe YOUR_OPTIONS_HERE</MSDeployCommand>
<!-- Append the -whatif to the command if this is just a simulation -->
<MSDeployCommand Condition= '$(SimulateExecution)'=='false' ">$(MSDeployCommand) -whatif</MSDeployCommand>
</PropertyGroup>
<Exec Command="$(MSDeployCommand)" />
... More things here
</Target>
</Project>
For the service actions you can use the WindowsService task from the MSBuild Extension Pack. You will have to fill in the blanks there.
When you call MSDeploy you should just use the Exec task to invoke msdeploy.exe with your parameters. If you pass the -whatif it will not actually perform the actions, just report what it would have done. These will be logged to the msbuild log. So if you invoke msbuild.exe with /fl you will get those actions written out to a file. The only issue that I've seen when taking this approach is that for msdeploy.exe you many times have to use full paths (those without ..) which can sometimes be tricky so be wary of such paths.