Deleting TeamBuilds in the RTM

Deleting TeamBuilds in the RTM

• James Crowley

  What is the actual command line command to perform the delete
  I dont see it in the Help file.
  

• Mark Vickers

  Thanks for the info Khushboo.
  
  I was thinking along the lines of nightly builds. More often than not these builds would just be measure of qualify of checked in code and a real 'release' made say once a month, therefore there would be in excess of 25 builds that were not usd or needed. If there was a way of bulk deleting nightly builds (from the command line is fine) that would be useful.
  
  If I have the 'build process' wrong then please don't hesitate to tell me ;-)
  
  Regards
  
  Graham
  

• mkassa

  I'm finding that even after deleting all the builds manually they still appear in my FOUND IN BUILD, RESOLVED IN BUILD and INERATION BUILD drop down lists on work items and bug items are still listing the deleted builds!!  I think I've narrowed it down to the value of the Column PHYSICALCACHESTAMP in the table dbo.Fields of the database TfsWorkItemTracking.  According to an exported xml file of a bug work item which shows this:
  <FIELD name="Found In" refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Build.FoundIn" type="String" reportable="dimension">
          <HELPTEXT>The build in which the bug was found</HELPTEXT>
          <SUGGESTEDVALUES expanditems="true">
            <LISTITEM value="&lt;None&gt;" />
          </SUGGESTEDVALUES>
          <SUGGESTEDVALUES expanditems="true" filteritems="excludegroups">
            <GLOBALLIST name="Builds - IQ" />
          </SUGGESTEDVALUES>
        </FIELD>
  
  it looks for the Microsoft.VSTS.Build.FoundIn in the dbo.Fields table for the list information.
  Please correct me if I'm wrong and direct me to how to clear these lists manually in the db. (I know how to clear all the build and references for the build id's already but I must be missing one step)
  
  Thanks
  

• erprashant

  Hi Mike
  
  You can go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms244360.aspx to find a description of this command and other commands in team build.
  However please note that this document is a little out of date and refers to the command line tool as teambuild which is now renamed to tfsbuild.exe.
  
  thanks
  -Khushboo
  
  

• ATS.NET

  Thank YOU SO MUCH Ling!  Works like a charm!  One question though.  I'm assuming that the build list must contain at least on listitem   I tried importing a new global list for the build list and the schema doesn't allow an <GLOBALLIST> item with no <LISTITEM> defined.  Also <LISTITEM value = ""> is not allowed either.  Is this possible or by design
  
  Thanks again!
  
  

• C0venant13

  Hi
  
  hmmm..this sounds interesting. We are investigating this currently and will get back to you shortly.
  Thanks for this excellent feedback.
  
  Thanks
  -Khushboo
  
  

• Ilianato

  Graham
  
  You have got the build process absolutely right. And surely easier ways of bulk delete is absolutely something that we should be thinking about.
  Currently we have a provision for specifying multiple builds in the command but suggestions like ability to provide a range (mentioned in the posts earlier), UI ways would be definitely things we can consider in Vnext.
  
  Thanks and do keep letting us know what you feel about the product.
  
  -Khushboo
  
  

• AlainDe

  Graham
  
  This feature was much debated for the UI Vs Non UI way and following are some of the reasons which we kept in mind while resolving it.
  
  - Deleting builds might not be a very common scenario except in the begining when there are more trial builds. Otherwise bulk deletes would be more common.
  - Deleting a build is an action with a serious consequence as all data related to the build and the binaries are deleted - so our usability engineers thought it would be a good idea not to make it too easy for users to 'delete' a build. If you are going the command line way - you are more likely to be sure
  - And of course a common reason is always 'cost'
  
  But it would definitely be a good idea to hear from users like you on these decisions that we make to find out your views.
  Thoughts
  
  Thanks
  -Khushboo
  
  
  
  

• rabbitoh

  Hi Graham - We are not supporting any UI way of deleting builds from Team Build in the RTM version also. The command line way is the only option provided.

  
  
  

• ERK

  Hi Khushboo,
  Thank you for your response.  I totally agree with and understand what you are saying and I believe that is why even after I have deleted the builds using tfsbuild delete command that they still appear in those mentioned drop down lists.  However, I've done a lot of testing with teambuild and now want to "wipe the slate clean" and therefore do not want all my testing builds to show up in the list. 
  I really appreciate you looking into this for me and I look forward to your response!
  

• Johannes7060

  To remove the entry from the drop down list, just edit the associated global list called "Builds - (Team Project Name)" and remove the unwanted entries.  There's a separate list for each project.
  
  Instructions for editing a global list are available here: https://blogs.msdn.com/team_foundation/archive/2005/05/06/415268.aspx
  
  

• Merten1982

  Hi Happer
  
  The tables that you are referring to are work item tracking tool tables and I have contacted the folks there to get info on what would be the impact of deleting these items from the table manually. They will get back to you shortly on this.
  
  On a side note - consider a scenario where though you have deleted the build cause it was no longer needed, some testers have that build still installed and they still want to report bugs on that build (hence use it in the Found in field), similarly for other fields like integration build even though the build is no longer available - the build number as such still has some significance. In such scenarios - though the build is now deleted ithe right thing should be to still show up in the drop downs. What do you think I hope I was clear in explaining the scenario to you
  
  Thanks
  -Khushboo
  
  

• rogerdubie

  The command for deleting a build is:
  
  tfsbuild delete <tfs server> <team project> <build name>
  
  for example
  
  tfsbuild delete http://myteamserver:8080 myTeam buildtype_20051201.1
  
  Run this from a VS 2005 command prompt on a machine with tfs client software on (i.e. your dev machine).
  
  
  HTH, regards
  
  Graham
  
  
  

• Engage

  Hey Gravyon,
  
  Yes I am aware of that command and I have used it to do exactly what it is meant for but if you notice it will delete your build from the dbo.builds and other tables but it does not remove it from the drop down lists I mentioned in my previous posts.
  
  regards
  
• Deleting TeamBuilds in the RTM