I have an Azure DevOps build that fails with an error that no files are found in a particular folder. If this build had run on-prem I would logon to the build server and explore the files and folder structure created by the build, in order to figure out what went wrong.
Is there a way to explore the build folder structure for a hosted agent?
The Work folder is the root for all of your Pipeline tasks whether it be artifact staging, repo, copy-files etc.
Run an in-line Powershell step with the following commands:
Set-Location $env:AGENT_WORKFOLDER
Get-ChildItem -Recurse
Check out this link for some other common locations. Just search for c:\agent_work for all of the predefined variables that contain your files.
You can add a PowerShell/Command Line task that go the agent folder and check the folders:
# Go to 's' folder in the agent - D:\a\1\s
cd "$(Build.SourcesDirectory)"
dir
If you need deeper level you can add it of course:
cd "$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/Test/Etc"
dir
You can run the build, check the folders and if it's not enough then add more paths to check.
Or like jesse said in the comment, you can run dir /b /s to get all :)
Related
When you set up an azure devops agent on a build machine, it will have a working folder (by default _work) where it will create subfolders for each pipeline that it has to run.
These folders have integer names like "80" or "29". This makes it hard to trouble shoot issues on a given build machine, when you have many pipelines, as you don't know which folder it each pipeline relates to.
Is there a way to figure out the mapping from pipeline > folder number, or to name these folders more explicitly?
Rename the folders is currently not supported in Azure DevOps.
Each pipeline maps a folder in the agent-> _work.
1.You could check the pipeline log to figure out which folder is your pipeline's working folder. (Enable system diagnostics)
2.You could also add a command line task in your pipeline to echo this directory.
echo $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
We are using a Microsoft Hosted Agent to run a build pipeline for an automated test scenario for our application. What we would like to achieve is, having our automation procedure, to download a file (from a headless chrome browser), then navigate to the path where it is downloaded and open it.
How could I find the path where the files are being downloaded inside the Agent?
Quick compilation of list of pre-defined variables related to paths for the build on linux and windows self hosted agents from official doc link.
The one you are looking is Agent.BuildDirectory or Pipeline.Workspace.
List of predefined variables:
Variable type
Variable
Description
Example
Agent
Agent.BuildDirectory
The local path on the agent where all folders for a given build pipeline are created
D:\..\agent\_work\1
Agent
Agent.HomeDirectory
The directory the agent is installed into
C:\agent
Agent
Agent.TempDirectory
A temporary folder that is cleaned after each pipeline job
D:\..\agent\_work\_temp
Agent
Agent.ToolsDirectory
The directory used by tasks such as Node Tool Installer and Use Python Version to switch between multiple versions of a tool
D:\..\agent\_work\_tool
Agent
Agent.WorkFolder
The working directory for agent
c:\agent_work
Build
Build.SourcesDirectory
The local path on the agent where your source code files are downloaded.
c:\agent_work\1\s
Build
Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory
The local path on the agent where any artifacts are copied to before being pushed to their destination. A typical way to use this folder is to publish your build artifacts with the Copy files and Publish build artifacts tasks
c:\agent_work\1\a
Build
Build.StagingDirectory
The local path on the agent where any artifacts are copied to before being pushed to their destination.
c:\agent_work\1\a
Build
Build.BinariesDirectory
The local path on the agent you can use as an output folder for compiled binaries
c:\agent_work\1\b
Build
Build.Repository.LocalPath
The local path on the agent where your source code files are downloaded.
c:\agent_work\1\s
Build
Common.TestResultsDirectory
The local path on the agent where the test results are created.
c:\agent_work\1\TestResults
Pipeline
Pipeline.Workspace
The Workspace directory for a particular pipeline
/home/vsts/work/1
System
System.DefaultWorkingDirectory
The local path on the agent where your source code files are downloaded.
c:\agent_work\1\s
When you install the agent, you specify the work directory. In pipeline tasks, you can find out exactly where within that directory files are staged with variables like $(Agent.BuildDirectory). This might not be the exact location you need, but I think it is in the right direction.
For a complete list of predefined variables, see here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/build/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml
You can check this document:
So for Linux its default location /home/<username>/Downloads.
I do the test in Microsoft hosted agent-window2019 with test C# code(Hint from Daniel!) like:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string FILEURI = "https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/package/Cauldron.Newton/2.0.0";
System.Diagnostics.Process prozess = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
prozess.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe";
prozess.StartInfo.Arguments = "--download " + FILEURI;
prozess.Start();
Console.WriteLine("Test starts.");
}
And then I use command like dir c:\users\VssAdministrator\cauldron.newton.2.0.0.nupkg /s /b to find the location of downloaded file: cauldron.newton.2.0.0.nupkg.
Then i confirmed the default download location of Chrome is still C:/Users/{user}/Downloads, same as using self-agent or downloading locally. (VssAdministrator is user when run windows hosted agent)
So I think Linux hosted agent should have similar behavior. You can try to find your file from /home/<username>/Downloads folder. Hope it helps.
I have a problem with my CI in Azure DevOps.
I need to have a generic PowerShell script run in each CI that copy files from the bin folder and put them to artifact(a) folder with each project folder name.
But bin path are dynamic e.g.
$projectBinDirectory\bin\release\net471\win-x64
$projectBinDirectory\bin\release\net471
$projectBinDirectory\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.1\win-x64
$projectBinDirectory\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.2\win-x64
$projectBinDirectory\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.1
in the future, if someone creates netcore 2.2 or something else how to configure publish path dynamically as I want to copy main project files
e.g.
copy from
bin\release\netcoreapp2.1\win-x64 all project *.dlls,*configs etc files
to
artifact\Projectname\ all project files
the issue
cannot figure out after bin\release\ path to reach to project files
I need to figure out what is the path dynamically after bin\release...\projectFiles
this argument fixed my issue
-c Release -o ./bin/$(BuildConfiguration)/publishNew:
I am new to Azure DevOps. I tried many ways but nothing helped. I am trying to create a pipeline which has Copy Files Task. I have folder structure like below
Bin
Common
abc.dll
Staging
Bin
Common
I want to copy abc.dll from Bin\Common to Staging\Bin\Common
In my Copy Files Task I am giving below
Source: Bin/Common
Contents: *.dll
Target Folder: Staging/Bin/Common
In Advanced:
Clean Target Folder: Check
Overwrite: Check
The Copy File Task succeeds and when I go to my Repo I donot see abc.dll in Staging\Bin\Common folder. In my Copy File Task log I see
Copying D:\a\1\s\Bin\Common\abc.dll to Staging\Bin\Common\abc.dll
I guess it must be
Copying D:\a\1\s\Bin\Common\abc.dll to D:\a\1\s\Staging\Bin\Common\abc.dll
Thanks in advance.
SOLUTION
Thanks to 4c74356b41 for pointing me in right direction. I accepted and marked as answer. As suggested, I created variable and used it like below
Variable Name: BinCommonStagingFolder
Variable Value: $(Build.Repository.LocalPath)\Staging\Bin\Common\
I used the variable in my Copy Files Task like below to copy only files which I need not all files
Source: Bin/Common
Contents:
abc.dll
abc.pdb
Target Folder: $(BinCommonStagingFolder)
In Advanced:
Clean Target Folder: Check
Overwrite: Check
i guess you should add full path, you can use build varible for that:
Target Folder: $(Build.Repository.LocalPath)\Staging\Bin\Common\
this would reference the root of the repo you checked out
For me, the issue was because I migrated from a Windows pipeline to a Linux one and path separators "\" on Windows hadn't been updated to "/" causing relative paths to be wrongly interpreted.
I'm trying to set up automatic build + deploy for a rather large solution. The single solution produces 2 zip folders in the "$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)" location, and these contain all the right files. For the purposes of testing/troubleshooting I am only looking at one of these zip files, but eventually both sites will have to be deployed this way.
However, to get to the actual files, you have to pass through 14 unnecessary subfolders. To further complicate matters, about 8 of these are variable, based on certain elements of the build configuration (some are due to folder structure in the git repo).
I don't want any of these subfolders. The other problem is that I don't actually want a 100% flat file; I need 2 folders with subfolders to be contained within the finally-extracted directory. (The final directory is a physical path for an IIS site.) Is there any way to do this?
I have tried:
Taking the generated zip file, extracting it to a temp directory, and repackaging it, all on the build machine.
To get this to work, I had to manually specify the 14 subdirectories. Also, I was unable to use "Publish Artifact" to upload the resulting zip to VSTS, so I'm not sure how to get it onto the server box.
Downloading the published zip file from VSTS, extracting it locally on the release machine, and then copying the contents to the correct directory.
This works only when I manually specify the 14 folders contained in the directory. I made an attempt to hide the 14 folders with wildcards but only succeeded in copying the excessive nesting structure - I'm guessing the "Source Folder" parameter doesn't support wildcards (I had to actually do it in the "Contents" section or the task failed).
Using the "Flatten Folders" advanced option in the copy dialog.
This removes ALL folder structure, which is not what I want. I need to end up with 2 folders containing subfolders in the final directory.
If it's not possible to only partially flatten the zip generated by the build step, I'd appreciate some help figuring out how much of this terribly convoluted path I can pull out using variables.
There is a very simple way to move the contents of only the contents and subdirectories the PackageTmp folder to the build artifacts folder while shedding the unnecessary folder structure above it, and without using the "Flatten Folders" option (since you likely want to keep the folder structure under PackageTmp intact):
First, in your Build Solution task, set the MS Build Arguments similar to the following:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=false /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.binariesdirectory)"
Notice that /p:PackageAsSingleFile=false is set to false; you don't want to zip the package up just yet. Also note the setting /p:PackageLocation="$(build.binariesdirectory). You don't want the output to go directly to the artifact staging directory, as is configured by default.
Next, add a Powershell task, and add this inline script:
$folder = Get-ChildItem -Directory -Path '.\*' -Include 'PackageTmp' -Recurse
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=PathToPackageTmpFolder]$($folder.FullName)"
This will store the fully qualified path to the PackageTmp folder in a variable named PathToPackageTmpFolder. Under Advanced options, set the Working Directory to $(build.binariesdirectory)
Now add a Copy Files task to move only the contents of PackageTmp and its subfolders to the artifact staging directory. Set Source Folder to $(PathToPackageTmpFolder), Contents to **, and Target Folder to $(build.artifactstagingdirectory). You're all set!
That is the MSBuild deploy/publish to package action and the folder structure won’t be remain after deploying to the server.
You can specify /p:PackageTempRootDir="" msbuild argument to ignore the folder structure of project path.
Another way is that, you can publish project through FileSystem method, then archive files through Archive files task.