Other build systems, e.g. Ant, have an if/then/else construct that allows for simplifying the script logic in many cases. The CIFactory NAnt variant has this as well (<ifthenelse/>), but is extremely outdated and does not support .NET 4.0 - nevertheless, updating your NAnt version from CIFactory to an official build complicates your build scripts needlessly, because you now need two <if/> tasks, one with the original condition, one with negation.
Is it possible in NAnt to achieve the if/then/else flow with a single condition?
In NAnt 0.92 a <choose/> task has been promoted from NAnt-contrib and allows you to achieve the if/then/else effect with only a single evaluation of the test condition. An example:
<property name="operatingSystem"
value="${operating-system::to-string(environment::get-operating-system())}" />
<choose>
<when test="${string::contains(operatingSystem, 'Windows')}">
<echo message="Running on Microsoft Windows" />
</when>
<otherwise>
<echo message="Are we running on Linux?" />
</otherwise>
</choose>
Related
We have a setup in which we have a service that we try to install and run.
For some reason, the service cannot start(due to a port already in use). This isn't critical for us and should not stop the setup.
The service is declared like this:
<DirectoryRef Id="BIN">
<Component Id="MyService" Guid="*" SharedDllRefCount="yes">
<File Id="MyService.exe" Name="MyService.exe" KeyPath="yes" Vital="no" Compressed="default" DiskId="1" Source="$(var.DirDotfuscated)\MyService.exe" />
<ServiceControl Id="Install" Name="MyService" Start="install" Stop="install" />
<ServiceControl Id="Uninstall" Name="MyService" Stop="uninstall" Remove="uninstall" />
<ServiceInstall Id="NewServiceInstall2" Name="MyService" DisplayName="My Service" Type="ownProcess" Interactive="no" Start="auto" ErrorControl="normal" Description="My service" Vital="no" />
</Component>
<Component Id="Xms_HostService_Files" Guid="*" SharedDllRefCount="yes">
<File Id="MyService.exe.config" Name="MyService.exe.config" Vital="no" Compressed="default" DiskId="1" Source="$(var.DirDotfuscated)\MyService.exe.config" />
<File Id="MyServiceCommon.dll" Name="MyServiceCommon.dll" Vital="no" Compressed="default" DiskId="1" Source="$(var.DirDotfuscated)\MyServiceCommon.dll" />
<File KeyPath="yes" Id="MyServiceCore.dll" Name="MyServiceCore.dll" Vital="no" Compressed="default" DiskId="1" Source="$(var.DirDotfuscated)\MyServiceCore.dll" />
</Component>
</DirectoryRef>
When we execute the setup, we get this error:
And then, we only have the option to Retry(which will also fail) or cancel(that stops the setup).
We tried so many things(only put serviceInstall, not serviceControl, ...) but at some point we always have an error.
How should we manage this?
Attempted Answer (without ability to test):
What happens if you set the ServiceControl element's Wait attribute to "no"? I don't have a service exe to test with at the moment, but I believe that could work as you intend it.
Custom actions should generally be avoided for reliability reasons, but on the other hand - if you do need something special - that's what they are there for. Be prepared for most deployment problems to originate from your custom actions though: Why is it a good idea to limit the use of custom actions in my WiX / MSI setups?
Some further advice (which was not asked for :-) ):
You should not install multiple binaries with one component. You should use one file per component for many reasons. Windows Installer best practice specifically dictates to have only one binary per component, but in my opinion you should use one component per file in general to make minor upgrades and patching possible, and self-repair more reliable.
To better understand component reference counting: Change my component GUID in wix?
By eliminating hard-coded GUIDs you can take advantage of WiX's advanced auto-GUID creation concept. This will change the component GUID if the absolute installation path changes. This is correct behavior for component reference counting. Auto-magic. You either set Guid="*" or just leave out the Guid attribute entirely. A few installation locations need a hard coded GUID - the WiX compiler will warn you and explain why.
If you do change the component structure (to use one file per component) you should change the installation path to "break the link to past sins" with regards to component reference counting. This is a very complex topic to explain, but changing the installation path will sort all problems for you - if you also enable the auto component GUIDs I mentioned in the previous point. Keep the path stable from then on (until you have a major new version).
You can do it as simple as adding a sub folder with the the application's major (and minor?) version to the main installation folder hierarchy: "Program Files\MyCompany\MySoftware\5" instead of "Program Files\MyCompany\MySoftware".
I would only add the major version to the path and keep the installation path stable throughout your application's lifetime and then increment when you want to break the link to previous installers for a major new software version (for example if you want to install two versions side-by-side - your application must be built to handle this properly, i.e not overwriting shared settings in the registry from both versions etc...).
You might want to consider simplifying your WiX source file by only specifying values for attributes that are non-standard (otherwise rely on defaults). This can substantially simplify your WiX source files. Here is an example: Syntax for guids in WIX?
Just a quick sample inline (same as in link above - check it out), this is all that is required to install a normal file with default attributes / parameters - all other attributes default well - unless you want to override something:
<Component>
<File Source="..\File.dll" />
</Component>
Some links:
Windows Installer Best Practices (full list).
Windows Installer Best Practices - Organizing Applications into Components (specifically for component creation).
When component reference counting has gone haywire (missing files after upgrades, unexpected removal of shared files on uninstall, etc...): WiX 3.8: Two MSI using the same registry values. How to delete registry values only if both MSI are uninstalled?
Drop the ServiceControl element in lieu of a CustomAction element with #DllEntry="WixQuietExec" set, then use a standard means of starting the service like net start foo and ignore the result. See Quiet Execution Custom Action for details.
I have a main ant script, that is used to initiate multiple project's ant script, in a certain sequence.
For each sub-project, I would like to to send out an email, notifying me whether the build was successful or not.
I understand that I can use the flag -logger with org.apache.tools.ant.listener.MailLogger to send out an email after the build finishes.
However, if I have multiple scripts that I want to send out an email, I'm not sure how to pass that flag -logger org.apache.tools.ant.listener.MailLogger into the ant call.
Precisely, I would like to pass the logger flag into this ant call:
< ant antfile="build.xml" dir="subproject/build" target="build" />
I tried using param and args, but didn't succeed.
Good question. Personally I could not make it work with the ant target. It seems flags are not supported.
However, this hack works.
<exec executable="ant.bat">
<arg value="-logger"/>
<arg value="org.apache.tools.ant.listener.MailLogger"/>
<arg value="-f"/>
<arg value="other_build.xml"/>
</exec>
Two immediate issues with this approach:
Not platform independent.
Build reports success when sub-build fails (even with exec's failonerror='true')
We have several hundred test classes, with a few dozen of them marked with the following attributes:
[TestFixture]
[Explicit]
[Category("IntegrationTests")]
so they will only be run in our over-night automated build. The remaining TestFixtures don't have a Category specified (and are not marked Explicit either).
Here is the NAnt task we are running to execute our tests:
<nunit2>
<test>
...
<categories>
<include name="IntegrationTests" />
</categories>
...
</test>
</nunit2>
This, of course, will not execute any of the uncategorized tests.
I'd like to be able to do something like this:
<nunit2>
<test>
...
<categories>
<include name="*" />
<include name="IntegrationTests" />
</categories>
...
</test>
</nunit2>
where all of the uncategorized tests will be run along with the integration tests. Is this possible? If so, what is the syntax?
(Note: I'm looking for either a NAnt solution, as above, or an NUnit command-line solution. I can certainly run NUnit twice with different options, or put Categories on all of my TestFixtures. These are workarounds that I'm OK using if I have to, but it would be more cool to be able to specify uncategorized tests directly.)
I'm in the same boat, and was getting frustrated until I just discovered that the Category attribute can be applied not just to a test or test fixture, but to a whole assembly.
I have two test assemblies with tests that I run locally, and one more with tests that should only run on the build server. I added this attribute in AssemblyInfo.cs in the first two projects : [assembly: NUnit.Framework.Category("Always")]. The third test project uses category attibutes like [Explicit, Category("PublicDatabase")] as you describe. The build server invokes NUnit with /include=Always,PublicDatabase and has the desired result: all of the tests in the first two assemblies run, and just the PublicDatabase tests in the third assembly run.
When I run NUnit locally on the first two projects, I just run it on the individual assemblies, and don't have to specify categories at all.
No, given you situation there is no way to do what you want in a single run of NUnit. If you took off the explicit attribute, you could do it in a single run by excluding all the categorized tests you don't want.
Basically, if you make the jump to categories, all you tests should be categorized.
I've been looking into TFS2010 new build and deployment features with MSDeploy. So far everything is going well (although its been hard to find information about specific scenarios).
Can I modify my Build Definition to specify 2 or more servers to deploy to? What I need to do is deploy to multiple servers (as I have two in my testing environment which uses a NLB).
What I have now is a Build definition which Builds, runs my tests, and then Deploys to ONE of my testing servers (which has the MsDeployAgentService running on it). It works fine, and each web project is deployed as configured in its project file. The MSBuild Arguments I use are:
* /p:DeployOnBuild=True
* /p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
* /p:MSDeployServiceURL=http://oawww.testserver1.com.au/MsDeployAgentService
* /p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
* /p:MsDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
* /p:AllowUntrustedCertificated=True
* /p:UserName=myusername
* /p:Password=mypassword
NB: I dont use /p:DeployIISAppPath="xyz" as it doesnt deploy all my projects and overrides my project config.
Can I add another build argument to get it to call more than one MSDeployServiceURL? Like something like a second /p:MSDeployServiceURL argument that specifies another server?
Or do I have to look for another solution, such as editing the WF?
I saw an almost exact same question here posted 2 months ago: TFS 2010 - Deploy to Multiple Servers After Build , so it doesn't look like I'm the only one trying to solve this.
I also posted on the IIS.NET forums where MSDeploy is discussed: http://forums.iis.net/t/1170741.aspx . It's had quite a lot of views, but again, no answers.
You don't have to build the project twice to deploy to two servers. The build process will build a set of deployment files. You can then use the InvokeProcess to deploy to multiple servers.
First create a variable named ProjectName. Then add an Assign activity to the "Compile the Project" sequence. This is located in the "Try to Compile the Project" sequence. Here are the properties of the Assign:
To: ProjectName
Value: System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(localProject)
Here are the properties of our InvokeProcess activity that deploys to the test server:
Arguments: "/y /M:<server> /u:<domain>\<user> /p:<password>"
FileName: String.Format("{0}\{1}.deploy.cmd", BuildDetail.DropLocation, ProjectName)
You will need to change <server>, <domain>, <user>, and <password> to the values that reflect your environment.
If you need to manually deploy to a server you can run the command below from your build folder:
deploy.cmd /y /M:<server> /u:<domain>\<user> /p:<password>
I couldn't find the solution I was looking for, but here's what I came up with in the end.
I wanted to keep the solution simple and configurable within the TFS arguments while at the same time staying in line with the already provided MSBuildArguments method which has been promoted a lot. So I created a new Build Template, and added a new TFS WorkFlow Argument called MSBuildArguments2 in the Arguments tab of the WorkFlow.
I searched through the BuildTemplate WorkFlow for all occurances of the MSBuildArguments (there were two occurances).
The two tasks that use MSBuildArguments are called Run MSBuild for Project. Directly below this task, I added a new "If" block with the condition:
Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(MSBuildArguments2)
I then copied the "Run MSBuild for Project" task and pasted it into the new If's "Then" block, updating its title accordingly. You'll also need to update the new Task's ConmmandLineArguments property to use your new Argument.
CommandLineArguments = String.Format("/p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true {0}", MSBuildArguments2)
After these modifications, the WorkFlow looks like this:
Save and Check In the new WorkFlow. Update your Build Definition to use this new WorkFlow, then in the build definition's Process tab you will find a new section called Misc with the new argument ready to be used. Because I'm simply using this new argument for deployment, I copied the exact same arguments I used for MSBuild Arguments and updated the MSDeployServiceURL to my second deployment server.
And that's that. I suppose a more elegant method would be to convert MSBuildArguments into an array of strings and then loop through them during the WorkFlow process. But this suits our 2 server requirements.
Hope this helps!
My solution to this is a new Target that runs after Package. Each project that needs to produce a package includes this targets file, and I chose to make the Include conditional on an externally-set "DoDeployment" property. Additionally each project defines the DeploymentServerGroup property so that the destination server(s) are properly filtered depending on what kind of project it is.
As you can see towards the bottom I'm simply executing the command file with the server list, pretty simple.
<!--
This targets file allows a project to deploy its package
As it is used by all project typesconditionally included from the project file
-->
<UsingTask TaskName="Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Tasks.BuildStep" AssemblyFile="$(TeamBuildRefPath)\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.ProcessComponents.dll" />
<!-- Each Server needs the Group metadatum, either Webservers, Appservers, or Batch. -->
<Choose>
<When Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'DEV'">
<ItemGroup>
<Servers Include="DevWebServer">
<Group>Webservers</Group>
</Servers>
<Servers Include="DevAppServer">
<Group>Appservers</Group>
</Servers>
</ItemGroup>
</When>
<When Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'QA'">
<ItemGroup>
<Servers Include="QAWebServer1">
<Group>Webservers</Group>
</Servers>
<Servers Include="QAWebServer2">
<Group>Webservers</Group>
</Servers>
<Servers Include="QAAppServer1">
<Group>Appservers</Group>
</Servers>
<Servers Include="QAAppServer2">
<Group>Appservers</Group>
</Servers>
</ItemGroup>
</When>
</Choose>
<!-- DoDeploy can be set in the build defintion -->
<Target Name="StartDeployment" AfterTargets="Package">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- The _PublishedWebsites area -->
<PackageLocation>$(WebProjectOutputDir)_Package</PackageLocation>
<!-- Override for local testing -->
<PackageLocation Condition="$(WebProjectOutputDirInsideProject)">$(IntermediateOutputPath)Package\</PackageLocation>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Tier servers are #(Servers)" />
<!-- A filtered list of the servers. DeploymentServerGroup is defined in each project that does deployment -->
<ItemGroup>
<DestinationServers Include="#(Servers)" Condition="'%(Servers.Group)' == '$(DeploymentServerGroup)'" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="Dest servers are #(DestinationServers)" />
</Target>
<!-- Only perform the deployment if any servers fit the filters -->
<Target Name="PerformDeployment" AfterTargets="StartDeployment" Condition="'#(DestinationServers)' != ''">
<Message Text="Deploying $(AssemblyName) to #(DestinationServers)" />
<!-- Fancy build steps so that they better appear in the build explorer -->
<BuildStep
TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"
BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"
Message="Deploying $(AssemblyName) to #(DestinationServers)...">
<Output TaskParameter="Id" PropertyName="StepId" />
</BuildStep>
<!-- The deployment command will be run for each item in the DestinationServers collection. -->
<Exec Command="$(AssemblyName).deploy.cmd /Y /M:%(DestinationServers.Identity)" WorkingDirectory="$(PackageLocation)" />
<BuildStep
TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"
BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"
Id="$(StepId)"
Status="Succeeded"
Message="Deployed $(AssemblyName) to #(DestinationServers)"/>
<OnError ExecuteTargets="MarkDeployStepAsFailed" />
</Target>
<Target Name="MarkDeployStepAsFailed">
<BuildStep
TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"
BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"
Id="$(StepId)"
Status="Failed" />
</Target>
I am the author of the other similar post. I have yet to find a solution. I believe it is going to be modifying the workflow to add a postprocessing MSBUILD -sync task. That seems to be the most elegant, but was still hoping to find something a bit less intrusive.
I'm not sure if that could help you with TFS 2010, but I have a blog post for TFS 2012: Multiple web projects deployment from TFS 2012 to NLB enabled environment.
In my org, we are planning to go for nant for .net web applications. Source control is TFS, visual studio 2008. I would like to know how to do Builds with Nant? How to create msi and deploy the application using Nant? Is separate Build machine is required to do builds with nant? Somebody please help me out. I need step wise process. Thanks in advance.
Thanks
Shanthi
For a step-by step guide to using NAnt I suggest referring to the NAnt project documentation for the fundamental concepts. Once you are familiar with it's basic usage I suggest investigating the nant-contrib project to obtain more build tasks.
One part of your question that I would like to address directly here is the question of whether a separate machine is required to use NAnt. NAnt does not strictly require a separate machine, however a separate machine might be beneficial if your build process is automated or particularly intensive
[Update]
In response to comment from OP:
NAnt views the build process as a series of individual tasks to be performed as part of a target. The normal process for building an application would be to invoke a compiler on the source files in order to produce a binary, NAnt has a number of tasks that invoke language compilers
In this example I will invoke the C# language compiler (csc.exe) using the task in an NAnt build file for a Hello World application that consists of a single source file named hello.cs.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="Hello World" default="build" basedir=".">
<property name="debug" value="true" overwrite="false" />
</target>
<target name="build" description="compiles the source code">
<csc target="exe" output="HelloWorld.exe" debug="${debug}">
<sources>
<includes name="HelloWorld.cs" />
</sources>
</csc>
</target>
</project>
Let's examine this XML:
<project name="Hello World" default="build" basedir=".">
Things to Note:
The value of the default property is "build". This means that the target named "build" will be invoked if no other target is specified.
This is the build target, as the description states it will compile the source code. To do this the csc task is used. The csc task has a number of options including
target: This specifies the type of binary the target will produce. In this case an executable will be produced
output: specifies the name of the executable file that will be created
debug: The value of this property used a conditional property debug (defined above as false) which will determine whether the compiler produces an executable that contains debugging information
sources & include:
specifies the source files that the compiler will parse in order to produce the executable
As you can see the actions necessary to build the source code are defined in a target. A build file can define many targets which each call many tasks. To produce an MSI file you would inoke a task that produces an MSI file, unfortunately as I don't actually use NAnt regularly, you will have to do some research to find one although I have a feeling the nant-contrib project includes one given how common it is to produce an MSI.
I hope this explanation as clarified things for you
The information in this update has been distilled from this document in the NAnt documentation
Seperate build machine is not necessarily required, but it's definetely recommended.
You'll want to look into using the following tools:
CruiseControl .NET
TFS Plugin for CC.NET