I have a .net poject (wpf, excel and asp.net site), I also have a build machine for the purpose of continuous integration. For continuous integration to work, I need to be able to build the project. So, what I have done so far is install visual studio on a build machine and things will build fine, but I dont really have that option, so I was wondering what do I need to run from the visual studio setup, just to be able to build projects, meaning I am pretty sure some of things like f# in this case or MVC frameworks are not something that I need. Is it possible to run a few of the executable or just customize the install and if so what are the mandatory things that I need to select to basically boil down to having a solution be able to build and not have the ide installed?
Thanks
MSBuild is the component that builds your solutions. You can have a look at this question to run it with minimal installation:
Installing MSBuild 4.0 without Visual Studio 2010
Related
Developers use the Visual Studio (VS) GUI to develop their solutions and get their projects all building using a solution file (.SLN). The build teams using vNext then have to automate those builds using MSBuild instead of devenv.exe (the Visual Studio executable file). This is a serious and chronic problem because not only is MSBuild incapable of building several project types, but the build order is defined in a completely different, and complex, way.
Some Microsoft advice (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/msbuild/incorrect-solution-build-ordering-when-using-msbuild-exe) is to switch to explicit dependencies in each .*proj file and remove all dependency specifications in the .SLN file. This sounds like a person who has never worked in a relatively powerless build team trying to get development teams to:
do a lot of what they perceive as time-wasting extra work and to
change how they do things
What build teams need is a way to automate whatever VS allows dev teams to build. If VS is given a SLN to build, then a vNext build needs to be able to use that same SLN in the same way. Instead vNext currently only offers MSBuild as the build tool. MSBuild has many more options than devenv, so that would be great, IF it could be made to use the SLN to govern dependencies in the same way as VS, and would be upgraded to build all the same project types.
There have been prospective efforts, referenced by PatrickLu-MSFT at Build project using devenv.exe in TFS 15RC1 Build Server, to enhance a vNext build step to allow devenv to be used instead of MSBuild, but those efforts seem to have been dropped.
Maybe someone has developed a custom vNext build step to build using devenv?
Here is an existing extension you can reference, which provides a build task in your TFS/VSTS instance that will allow you to build your projects using DevEnv.com (Visual Studio):
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mmajcica.devenv-build
If you want to automatically use TFS/DevOps build whatever solution files our development teams get working using Visual Studio, you could set CI trigger in build pipeline, when the solution build successfully on local, you can check in/commit the changes, and trigger TFS/DevOps builds.
I used this tutorial to add google test to my existing CMake project. I use CMake to generate my Visual Studio 2015 project files as well. Unfortunately, doing so also caused CMake/Visual Studio to generate six additional Visual Studio projects which were not there before:
Is there a way to hide or get rid of these? They are cluttering my workspace...
The easy solution is: don't build gmock and gtest together with your project (I know some people advice to do exactly this).
I'm going this way for years and I'm totally fine with that. The procedure is the following:
I am downloading googletest from github. The project itself is coming with CMakeFiles, where is normally no need to modify them. I run cmake and build them in visual studio in isolation. After that I just link my Project against gmock and copy the dlls into my build folder. and done :)!
I have the following error on the build server for code that compiles and passes tests fine locally.
(150): The imported project
"C:\Program
Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets"
was not found. Confirm that the path
in the declaration is
correct, and that the file exists on
disk.
I've added the WebApplications folder from my local machine to the appropriate path on the build server but I'm still getting the same error on build.
I believe the recommended approach with TFS2008 was to install VS2008 in it's entirety on the build server. Is this still the case with TFS2010 and VS2010 accordingly? a.k.a Sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Pretty much, especially if you plan on using other features like MSTest. You can try just adding the targets file but you'll probably still have some missing dependencies. You could go through the whole process of fixing the dependencies as you go along but it's probably easier just to install VS 2010 and be done with it.
This blog post seems to describe a way to do what you want without having to install additional software on the build server, if all you need is the .net compilers. It does not cover C++ compiler setup.
I discovered that if you're going to do just "standard" (i realize that's open to interpretation) web apps and non-web apps (e.g. services), you can get away with installing just Visual Studio 2010 Shell, plus Visual Studio 2010 SP1 on the build server. That will get you the missing .targets files.
Since a full VS install is required for advanced features, does anyone know if the build-server-install license cost is waived?
I use NUnit for Mono/C# on my Mac, but I need to use Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting for unit testing.
How is Microsoft TestTools' UnitTesting different from NUnit? Can I just change the namespace and recompile to get the same result, or do I have to rewrite the test?
Can I copy some of the assemblies to my Mac to run tests for Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting? If so, what files should be copied?
See Migrating from NUnit to MSTest.
As to why you might try convincing your team to migrate the other way, see NUnit vs. MsTest: NUnit wins for Unit Testing.
Ask yourself - why do you need the Ms tools if you already have a working set with NUnit.
Personally I've worked with both and unless working in legacy where the MS tool was in great use, I'd choose NUnit for this toolset due to the larger community support I get in cases of problems.
MSTest can be used without installing Visual Studio. You will need to install Visual Studio Test Agent, which is a free download from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=1334.
I think this approach is better from a licensing perspective than manually copying MSTest.exe and its dependencies onto the build server.
My biggest problem with MSTest is that it requires the install of Visual Studio, even if you are trying to run a lean build server.
NUnit can install and run anywhere.
I think most people here understand the importance of fully automated builds.
The problem is one of our project is now using an integrated Visual Studio Setup project (vdproj) and has recently been ported to Visual Studio 2008. Unfortunatly, those won't build in MSBuild and calling devenv.exe /build on 2008 just crashes, apparently it does that on all multi core computer (!!!). So now I have the choice to either rollback to .Net 2.0 and 2005 or simply ditch Visual Studio deployement, but first, I'd like a second opinion.
Anyone knows of another automated way to build a .vdproj that will not require us to open the IDE and click on stuff?
WiX was what I had in mind when saying we would ditch vdproj. Do you have any experience with it, good things, caveat?
The low cost solution is to switch to using ClickOnce, which you can automate using MSBuild. But if you still need to create a Windows Installer package, you will need to convert your project to WiX (pretty straight foward) and build that with your solution.
This will get you started:
Automate Releases With MSBuild And Windows Installer XML
I've used WiX a little bit before, and generally I found that it's great once you figure out what to do but there is a steep learning curve. If you spend a solid day going over the WiX tutorial you should be be able to get 80% of your setup working.
WiX Toolset Tutorial
I had the same requirement and ended up using what is suggested in these two links
David Williams Blog
MSDN article
Basically, since Team Build, by itself, will not build the setup projects for you, this approach has you add a new build step after the regular build is complete. This step fires off a second build by launching the devenv.exe. The IDE will build your setup files. The extra build is a bit costly but we only needed it for builds that were going to be pushed out. The Daily build at most would need this customization our CI build does not need to build setup files each time.
After that you execute some Copy commands, once again build steps that show up in your Team System build results, to move the setup files to a network share etc.
It feels a bit like a kluge at first, but it does work, it is also a full-fledged part of the automated build in Team System so it worked for my Continuous Integration goals.