On to MSBuild and Teamcity

Right I took a good look at WIX (well I skimmed over the getting started doc just to get a feel for it.) then moved onto MSBuild. I need to get a good idea of the whole process (code to deployed) before I can really put forward any serious suggestions for improvement.

So yesterday I took a look at the nightly batch script that currently builds our VB6 apps, with a view of moving them to to msbuild and ultimately over to team city. Looking at the script it all looked pretty straight forward. So I grabbed the msbuildextensions pack from codeplex took a look at the documentation, and put a very simple build script together, using mostly default settings. pointed it at the vbp and ran it. This appeared to be working. so off I go to make tea. upon my return... build failed :(.  (exit code 1 link.exe failed )

So I take another look at the batch script. this time in a little more detail. Turns out just before we build the apps we put an svn lock on the exes (yes the compiled files are stored in svn). unfortunately there is no way to put a lock on a file in svn from msbuild, well not out the box or via community tasks (unless ive misssed something? ), I guess I could build a custom task, but I don't think its worth it. so I change the output dir and set it off again, and went to make more tea. upon my return build succeeded. at last were getting somewhere.

Now due to the way we currently have team city set up to pull the source (auto on server) it just performs an export so all svn data is missing, need to change this to auto on agent (this performs a checkout and retains all  svn info), not ready to start changing anything on the production boxes just yet so time to install team city locally and create a branch of the src to prototype this properly. Now how do I copy the config off the server without access to the box... found it if you do a diff of changes it gives you the raw xml. now I need a light weight editor on this box. (I find vs with all it bells and whistles a little too heavy for simple text manipulation. so I'm off to fetch notepad++)

this blog really is living up to its name. thetownfool is rambling again....