How do I detect if the test run was successful in a Team Build 2013 Post-Test script? - powershell

Question

I have a build configuration in TFS 2013 that produces versioned build artifacts. This build uses the out of the box process template workflow. I want to destroy the build artifacts in the event that unit tests fail leaving only the log files. I have a Post-Test powershell script. How do I detect the test failure in this script?
Here is the relevant cleanup method in my post-test script:
function Clean-Files($dir){
if (Test-Path -path $dir) { rmdir $dir\* -recurse -force -exclude logs,"$NewVersion" }
if(0 -eq 1) { rmdir $dir\* -recurse -force -exclude logs }
}
Clean-Files "$Env:TF_BUILD_BINARIESDIRECTORY\"
How do I tests for test success in the function?

Answer 1

(Updated based on more information)
The way to do this is to use environment variables and read them in your PowerShell script. Unfortunately the powershell scripts are run in a new process each time so you can't rely on the environment variables being populated.
That said, there is a workaround so you can still get those values. It involves calling a small utility at the start of your powershell script as described in this blog post: http://blogs.msmvps.com/vstsblog/2014/05/20/getting-the-compile-and-test-status-as-environment-variables-when-extending-tf-build-using-scripts/

Answer 2

This isn't a direct answer, but... We just set the retention policy to only keep x number of builds. If tests fail, the artifacts aren't pushed out to the next step.
With our Jenkins setup, it wipes the artifacts every new build anyway, so that isn't a problem. Only the passing builds fire the step to push the artifacts to the Octopus NuGet server.

Answer 3

The simplest possible way (without customizing the build template, etc.) is do something like this in your post-test script:
$testRunSucceeded = (sqlcmd -S .\sqlexpress -U sqlloginname -P passw0rd -d Tfs_DefaultCollection -Q "select State from tbl_TestRun where BuildNumber='$Env:TF_BUILD_BUILDURI'" -h-1)[0].Trim() -eq "3"
Let's pull this apart:
sqlcmd.exe is required; it's installed with SQL Server and is in the path by default. If you're doing builds on a machine without SQL Server, install the Command Line Utilities for SQL Server.
-S parameter is server + instance name of your TFS server, e.g. "sqlexpress" instance on the local machine
Either use a SQL login name/password combo like my example, or give the TFS build account an account on SQL Server (preferred). Grant the account read-only access to the TFS instance database.
The TFS instance database is named something like "Tfs_DefaultCollection".
The "-h-1" part at the end of the sqlcmd statement tells sqlcmd to output the results of the query without headers; the [0] selects the first result; Trim() is required to remove leading spaces; State of "3" indicates all tests passed.
Maybe someday Microsoft will publish a nice REST API that will offer access to test run/result info. Don't hold your breath though -- I've been waiting six years so far. In the meantime, hitting up the TFS DB directly is a safe and reliable way to do it.
Hope this is of some use.