Three problems with Team Build: read-only paths, missing include paths and huge checkouts

Three problems with Team Build: read-only paths, missing include paths and huge checkouts

• AnthonyS

  Hi,

  Thanks a lot for your answer, this is working (I guess). But now it seems, as if the additional include-directories which are specified in the project-files are no longer used.

  How to fix this new problem

  
  

• Gary M.

  Hi,

  the problem with include-files still is unsolved. I added this to my teambuild-file:

  <AdditionalReferencePath Include="c:\path\boost_1_33_1" />

  In this directory, there is a directory called boost. Nevertheless, I get the same compile-errors:

  fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'boost/shared_ptr.hpp': No such file or directory.

  Please help, this is rather urgent.

  Kind regards,

  Daniel

  
  

• InfoseekerExtra

  Does the SetEnvironmentVariable apply throughout the build, including when the test portion of the build starts

  I have a build which its tests need to know where the build output is placed through use of an environment varialbe. If I only had one build type it wouldnt be a problem, but I have 4 branches of the same build building on my build machine, with their outputs being placed in different directories, and the same tests need to be able to execute on all of them... any ideas

  
  
  

• TJ9139

  2) Use "AdditionalReferencePath" itemgroup to specify the location for referenced assemblies and resources. Reference -(tfsbuild.proj) - http://blogs.msdn.com/manishagarwal/archive/2006/01/04/509125.aspx

  3) To avoid getting specific folders under team build - Reference :- http://blogs.msdn.com/manishagarwal/archive/2005/10/13/480584.aspx

  
  
  

• Zhou Justin

  Daniel,

  Yes. That is a problem. Here is another ( slightly more complex) way you can solve your issue without overriding the existing AdditionalOverrides property , by adding your global include path to the INCLUDE environment variable.

  You have to make modifications to your Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets file in "Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\" . This file is a common file used by all the TeamProjects in a build. So please ensure that you do the changes carefully and also make a backup of the file before modification.

  Step 1) Add a Property say (MyCustomBuildProperties) in an existing PropertyGroup or to a new PropertyGroup

  <PropertyGroup>
  <MyCustomBuildProperties></MyCustomBuildProperties>
  </PropertyGroup>

  ** In the next release of TFS there will be a property in this file predefined that can be used to pass properties to msbuild command but for now this will have to done explicitly.

  Step 2) Inside the CoreCompile target in the same file add the new Property to the list of properties of the MSBuild task that used for compilation -

  <!-- Build using MSBuild task -->
  <MSBuild
  Condition=" '@(SolutionToBuild)'!='' "
  Projects="@(SolutionToBuild)"
  Properties="$(MyCustomBuildProperties);Configuration=$(FlavorToBuild);Platform=$(PlatformToBuild);SkipInvalidConfigurations=true;VCBuildOverride=$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\TFSBuild.vsprops;FxCopDir=$(FxCopDir);OutDir=$(OutDir);ReferencePath=$(ReferencePath);TeamBuildConstants=$(TeamBuildConstants);$(CodeAnalysisOption)"
  Targets="Build" />

  
  Step3)Now you can pass any properties to the msbuild task from your tfsbuild.proj file by overriding the "MyCustomBuildProperties".
  Edit the TfsBuild.proj file and override the MyCustomBuildProperties property as

  <MyCustomBuildProperties>VCBuildAdditionalOptions=/useenv</MyCustomBuildProperties>

  By setting this option Vcbuild will use the INCLUDE environment variable during the build.

  Step4) Now we have to set the environment variable INCLUDE by adding your global search path to it before the build starts.
  a)For this you will need to author a msbuild task that sets a given environment variable. You can find the code for the task at
  "http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/archive/2006/01/21/515834.aspx" . You can use this code compile it to as a csharp library (say SetENv.dll) and check the dll into the <YourTeamPRoject>\TeamBUildTypes\<YourBuildType> folder.

  b) After this edit your TfsBuild.Proj again and override the BeforeCompile target as follows.
  (Since TeamBuild kicks off a build in a dos cmd we need to explicitly set the required env variables if we use the /useenv option of vcbuild. For this set a global system environment variable VCInstallDir to "<YourVSDrive>\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\" )

  
  <UsingTask TaskName="SetEnvironmentVariable"
  AssemblyFile="SetEnv.dll" />

  <Target Name="BeforeCompile" >

  <!-- Set the Path, LIB and INCLUDE to the values of a visual studio cmd env -->
  <SetEnvironmentVariable
  Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)'!='true' "
  Name="PATH"
  Value="$(VCInstallDir)Common7\IDE;$(VCInstallDir)VC\BIN;$(VCInstallDir)Common7\Tools;$(VCInstallDir)Common7\Tools\bin;$(VCInstallDir)VC\PlatformSDK\bin;$(VCInstallDir)SDK\v2.0\bin;$(PATH)" />

  
  <SetEnvironmentVariable
  Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)'!='true' "
  Name="LIB"
  Value="$(VCInstallDir)VC\ATLMFC\LIB;$(VCInstallDir)VC\LIB;$(VCInstallDir)VC\PlatformSDK\lib;$(VCInstallDir)SDK\v2.0\lib;$(LIB)" />
  
  <SetEnvironmentVariable
  Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)'!='true' "
  Name="INCLUDE"
  Value="$(VCInstallDir)VC\ATLMFC\INCLUDE;$(VCInstallDir)VC\INCLUDE;$(VCInstallDir)VC\PlatformSDK\include;$(VCInstallDir)SDK\v2.0\include;$(INCLUDE);$(MYPATH)" />

  <SetEnvironmentVariable
  Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)'=='true' "
  Name="INCLUDE"
  Value="$(INCLUDE);$(MYPATH)"/>
  
  </Target>

  Check in the TfsBuild.proj file and fire off a build to ensure that changes you have made haven't introduced any errors.
  Please let me know if anything is unclear.

  Thanks,

  Chaitanya

  
  

• Staceyd

  Hi Daniel

  TeamBuild generates a TFSBuild.vsprops file which contains overrides for VC++ projects. To solve your issue, you will need to override the AdditionalIncludeDirectories property of the VCCLCompilerTool Tag. The TFSBuild.vsprops file is not a static file but is generated by TeamBuild dynamically for each platform/flavor configuration. So in order to allow a user to provide additional overrides (over and above what TeamBuild already overrides) a property called AdditionalVCOverrides has been provided. You should assign a string that will override the AdditionalIncludeDirectories property to the AdditionalVCOverrides property.

  Simply put this means adding the following line to your TFSBuild.vsprops file
  <Tool Name="VCCLCompilerTool" AdditionalIncludeDirectories="$(YOUR_ENVIRONEMENTVARIABLE_USED_FOR_THE_PATH)" />

  
  To add this you will need to edit your TFSBuild.proj file and add the following lines.
  Since this is an string containing xml tags we need to escape some of the special characters (like <, >,),(, " etc)

  <PropertyGroup>
  <AdditionalVCOverrides>%3CTool Name=%22VCCLCompilerTool%22 AdditionalIncludeDirectories=%22$%28YOUR_ENVIRONEMENTVARIABLE_USED_FOR_THE_PATH%29%22 /%3E%0D%0A</AdditionalVCOverrides>
  </PropertyGroup>

  some common escape sequences (includes all the ones I have used) can be found at
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/dnmbscrm1_2/html/mbs_crmreportsfromurl.asp

  I have tried this out on my dev box and it works so hopefully this should solve your problem.
  After doing this fire off a build and ensure that the TFSBUild.vsprops file in the BuildType dir contains the new AdditionalIncludeDirectories tag. Also if you are adding a new environment varialbe for this purpose, you will need to restart the TeamBuildService on your BuildMachine.

  Thanks,

  Chaitanya

  
  

• Jasen Bankson

  Ok. You get this error when the proper VC++ paths are not in the PATH environment variable.

  The statement

  <!-- Set the Path, LIB and INCLUDE to the values of a visual studio cmd env -->
      <SetEnvironmentVariable
        Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)'!='true' "
        Name="PATH"
        Value="$(VCInstallDir)Common7\IDE;$(VCInstallDir)VC\BIN;$(VCInstallDir)Common7\Tools;$(VCInstallDir)Common7\Tools\bin;$(VCInstallDir)VC\PlatformSDK\bin;$(VCInstallDir)SDK\v2.0\bin;$(PATH)" />

  is supposed to set the PATH to the proper values.

  Have you set VCInstallDir to the proper system environment variable that equals to "<YourVSDrive>\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\"  Also you will need to restart the TEamBuildService for the environment variable to be show itself in the build process.

  The BeforeCompile is an empty target defined in the targets file. You can directly use it in your TfsBuild.proj file so that it gets overridden. Place the override of the BeforeCompile target at the end of the TfsBuild.proj file rather than at the beginning so that your overriden target comes after the import statement of the targets file.

  Let me know how this goes.

  Thanks,

  Chaitanya

  
  

• Timo van Noppen

  wow... This is getting more and more complicated... And still it is not working!

  The BeforeCompile-target I added to the targets-file, because in the proj-file there was no such target.

  For every project now I am getting the following:

  Solution: xxx.sln, Project: yyy.vcproj, Compilation errors and warnings

  Project(0,0): error PRJ0003: Error spawning 'cl.exe'.

   

  :(

   

  The same happens, if I add BeforeCompile to the proj-file......

  
  

• Naama Zarfati

  Daniel,

  I am so sorry daniel, I replied rather quickly without reading your scenario properly.

  Actually C++ projects are build (vcbuild) in a different way (than csproj/vbproj/webproj etc). The additional properties are passed using TFSBuild.vsprops file which is generated on the fly by the build process (refer corecompile target in msft.teamfoundation.build.targets file).

  This overrides file is passed to the msbuild task using the following option in core compile target - VCBuildOverride=$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\TFSBuild.vsprops

  We will investigate this issue and get back to you ASAP.

  Regards

  
  
  

• Eamonn Turley

  1. What you describe is a good way to tackle the situation. Or you could also create the folder outside the Sources branch using a custom task before the get happens.

  2. Team Build has no knowledge of the global reservation path - hence this file is not found. You need to include these files in any of the folders in the generic Path env variable or put it in the same directory as the solution that references these

  3. If you want to sync only certain solutions, you need to create explicit workspaces for those. Check out this entry for more info.

  Hope that helps.

  
  
  

• Chris Berg

  1. ok.

  2. "You need to include these files in any of the folders in the generic Path env variable" -> how to Your second suggestion sure is no option ;)

  It's a bit poor that TeamBuild has no built-in way to handle this. Such an expensive tool, but can't handle everyday-issues for C++-projects.

  3. Thanks, I will have a look.

  
  
• Three problems with Team Build: read-only paths, missing include paths and huge checkouts