I've been using NAnt for sometime and although it works pretty well most of the time, some functionality is so limited you find yourself doing a page worth of work instead of couple of lines.
My biggest problem is returning results from exec task.. you HAVE to output to file then read the file then in my case substring what you read.
Multiply that by 8 different queries and you have lots of unnecessary work.
Anyway I would like to switch MSBuild which has much better support in this case.
But the problem is that I am using CI + Nant to deploy on staging and sometimes production and Nant is just a directory with files that you copy.
But As far as I know MSBuild must be installed and registered.
Is there such a thing as a standalone MSBuild download?
Thanks
I don't have time today to write up a rough history for MSBuild (I already covered ASP.NET on IIS and C# compilers), but I would tell you that MSBuild is not only standalone today, but open source at GitHub,
https://github.com/microsoft/msbuild
You can download the installers from Microsoft Downloads, or you can compile your own.
Reference: Rough History of MSBuild
Related
I'm building a Visual Studio 2010 solution through Python with a call to subprocess. When called directly from the command line it takes devenv.com ~15 seconds to start. But when called from Python this jumps up to ~1.5 minutes.
Naturally I'm hoping to remove that dead time from our build. So I decided to test out MSBuild.exe (from .NET 4). It looks like MSBuild.exe runs instantly. But... it seems to do a full build every time and not an incremental.
The command I'm using is
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe" "C:\path\to\my\project.sln" /target:build /maxcpucount:8 /property:Configuration=Release
It seems like this should support an incremental build. But I've seen posts online indicating that msbuild may not be able to support a incremental build like this.
Is this possible? If so what am I doing wrong?
Update:
I've read into this a bit more. Based on
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171483.aspx
and
http://www.digitallycreated.net/Blog/67/incremental-builds-in-msbuild-and-how-to-avoid-breaking-them
It seems like I need the Input and Output properties set in my .vcxproj files. Checking out my files these are indeed missing.
When would they be generated? Most my .vcxproj files were converted over from Visual Studio 2008. But I also generated a new project which is missing the Input and Output properties as well.
Does VS2010 not create projects with these properties?
Update: We've since upgrade to VS 2013. Now msbuild supports incremental builds. Never got to the bottom of the VS 2010 issue.
I think that fact that Incremental builds are not supported is a false Statement from according to official sources,Managed Incremental Build this feature and was included in VS2010 SP1
We first introduced the managed incremental build feature in VS2008.
In VS2010, we were not able to re-implement the managed incremental
build feature with the build system moving to MSBuild. We received
strong customer requests for this feature. As a result, we
re-implemented this feature and it is included in VS2010 SP1.
Other Solutions I found on Web
Projects should build incrementally already (just make sure that you
do Build instead of Rebuild). The best way to check if incremental
building works is to run the build from the command line. The second
time you build it should take almost no time.
If things are still getting rebuilt, then perhaps you've modified
your projects in some way that's messing up with the build order.
Looking at the build logs (via the /v option) can help you poinpoint
what's going on.
Other reason which can cause problems with the incremental build is GenerateResource.TrackFileAccess PropertyThis API supports the .NET Framework infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code.
Gets or sets a switch that specifies whether we should be tracking file access patterns.
I'm having a .net WPF project that compiles to a bunch of dlls. I also have another project that compiles all the dlls and creates an installator exe.
I am also using TeamCity to automatically do those tasks for me with a press of a button.
The problem is that I want to have a separate TeamCity build configuration intended to automatically copy the result installator exe to a number of remote machines, each having specific credentials. But, unfortunately, I don't get how do I do this.
I have found some articles on automatic deploying (like this http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/11/you-deploying-it-wrong-teamcity.html), but, obviously, they are very specific for web projects.
So, how should I correctly deploy my installator on build?
Your best bet is to research NAnt and make a simple task that will copy the TeamCity artifact (installer) out to the specified location.
All you would need to do is have TeamCity execute the specified NAnt task after the installer has been built.
http://nant.sourceforge.net/release/0.85/help/tasks/copy.html
Update
Also, check out this question for solutions on specifying the credentials for the copy task.
OK, I've found out that it's pretty easy to do this using the FtpUpload MSBuild community task. There, one can set up the credentials and all other stuff needed for uploading a file (or a set of files) via ftp.
There's plenty of information/blogs/msdn articles around on NOT using GACUtil in your Deployment/Release scenarios and that MSI or another windows installer technology is a far better option.
However is it still appropriate to use GACUtil in your Development work flow.
We have a number of DLLs that are strong named & referenced from the GAC. In order to keep the development team in sync, once a new version of the GAC-able DLL is generated it's automatically added to all other developers GAC's as part of their daily trunk checkout. Workflow goes something like:
A Developers makes a change to one of our GAC-able assemblies, tests it locally, and once signed off, compiles a release version of the DLL
Release version is copied from \Project_DIR\bin\Release*.dll -> \COMPANY_GAC\Current*.dll
Other devs run our Source Control check out batch scripts which:
Check out newest versions of COMPANY_GAC\Current*.dll
Run GacUtil.exe on each DLL
This has worked for us up until now, but it's getting a little more complex with:
- Larger Team, more stringent management of GAC Changes.
- CLR2.0 & CLR4.0 compiled Company_Gac assemblies requiring different versions of GACUtil.exe
- Managing assemblies on Build/Integration Servers which have multiple feature branches (and hence having to hot-swap different GAC Dlls)
Should we be looking at something more robust that GACUtil & Scripts to manage this?
One consideration was to roll something ourselves in powershell to check the Assembly type and add the assemblies to the correct GAC. Has anyone done this?
Any other suggestions on how developers manage their GAC workflow would be welcome.
Not using gacutil.exe during deployment is an easy one: it isn't available on the target machine since it is a Windows SDK utility and it is not a re-distributable component.
Using it during development certainly isn't popular. Most typically you'd use a solution with the dependent projects included so that you'll automatically get the latest build with local deployment and no need for the GAC. That goes well up to a point, build times can require starting distributing swords when the solution gets too massive.
No magic solutions past that point, the GAC certainly helps to get build times down again. In general, churn in the foundation assemblies should start with minus 1000 points, they can cause a lot of pain. Save them up for only, say, weekly release updates. Off hand, there's also the core need to get all this stuff properly installed on the client machines. If nobody has focused on that yet, maybe now is a good time to get that solid. Which automatically gets debugged when everybody uses it to get the assemblies they need on their machine.
I have been used to working with VS2005 and 2008 - using msbuild, etc, but I have inherited a set of projects that have to remain in vc6.0 for now. I don't like opening each project in the developer studio and building. I prefer to build form command line (I am automating the builds). Is this possible?
I have tried the nmake utility, but I still need to open up the projects and save/export the make file. This is tedious if the project changes - each time I have to save the make file. nmake seems to work, but it had a problem when I changed the location of the project in my directory tree (I checked out of svn into a new clean dir to try the build). It seemed to have hard coded paths in it, but I will have to check on that - it might have been a different problem.
Any alternatives out there?
Eventually I will migrate these to 2008, but for now that is not an option.
I'm recording the most important part of your link here - Microsoft has a bad habit of moving stuff around and leaving dead links. Not only is this the most important bit, but it gives enough information to do a search if/when they move it.
Building a Project from the Command Line
You can build a Visual C++ project from the command line without first exporting a makefile (MAKEFILE, or filename.mak) and using the NMAKE utility.
The basic command syntax is
msdev FileName [/MAKE "ProjectName – ConfigName | ALL"] [/REBUILD /CLEAN /NORECURSE /OUT LogFile /USEENV]
where FileName is the name of your project (.dsp) or workspace (.dsw) file.
I think I found m answer here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa699274.aspx
thanks all
of course you can automate. I haven't used vc in years, but I think the compiler is called c8.exe or wow, I can't remember silly little tidbits like that anymore, but look in your vc\bin directory at all the exes and it will be obvious by name.
you can write a batch file worst case. But I also remember the UI having a "create makefile" function. So you do that once, and then just run make from the command line and voila. or maybe it's nmake. Again, been a long long time.
Microsoft provides a command line driver for building Visual Studio projects. In VC6 it's called "msdev" (do msdev /? for a list of options).
At some point (probably VS.NET/VS 2002) they started calling the command line build driver "devenv" for some reason. It has a somewhat different syntax, but for driving builds the options are the same or similar.
We use automated builds at my work place. Essentially just a batch file i fire off from the command line. Let me make sure i am allowed to post some sample code before i go ahead and post it. But yes, it IS possible to automate the build.
Sample Code:
:::::::: CompileSolution :::::::::::::::::::::::::
call X:\BuildTools\bin\BuildVbProj.bat
%COMPONENTNAME% %SOLUTIONDIR%
%PROJFILE% %BUILDOUTPUTFILE%
%PREBUILDFILE% if %ERRORLEVEL% NEQ 0
goto BuildErrors
goto Cleanup
EDIT: The BuildVbProj.bat file ultimately calls VB6.exe in the Program Files\MS Visual Studio\VB98\ folder. Try calling it with "VB6.exe /?" or "VB6.exe -?" and it will show you a list of options. You can basically automate your process using those options.
There should be a similar exe for VC in the VC98 folder as well.
Another option which is less labor intensive is
Pulldown Menu (BUILD)
Select (BATCHBUILD)
Push Button (REBUILDALL)
I've written a console application that has a number of unit tests and I'm wanting to include it in my nant build script so that it will be run on our TeamCity CIS.
Unfortunately I'm not quite sure how to do that. The nant script has examples of current projects that have been added...they they all have to supply the assemblies that need to be tested. ie MyProject.dll But my console app doesn't have anything like that since it compiles into MyProject.exe
There must be a way to automate these tests since I'm able to run the unit tests from within Visual Studio without issue.
Does anyone know if and how this is possible?
The answer to this question is that you add the name of the executable in the same place you add the list of DLL assemblies. The set of unit tests is compiled into the executable instead of into a separate dll file.
Gishu is the one who should take credit for this answer...since he answered me via a comment...however, I'm wanting to mark this question as answered so I'm writing up the answer so others can benefit from the solution.
Gishu, if you ever come back to this question, please feel free to write up your comment as an answer and I'll change the accepted answer to yours.
What Test framework do you use for those tests? You've mentioned Visual Studio, I may guess it is mstest. TeamCity added support for MSTest starting from 4.0 for sln2008 build runner.
Could you please have a look to a full list of supported .NET unit test frameworks at
http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/TCD4/.NET+Testing+Frameworks+Support
Any way, have a look to custom unit tests integration manual pages at
http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/TCD4/Build+Script+Interaction+with+TeamCity
I've just noticed xUnit tag. xUnit supports TeamCity. Please refer to
http://www.codeplex.com/xunit/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=4278
for more details.