TFSBuild.proj and Importing External Targets

Question

We want to store our overridden build targets in an external file and include that targets file in the TFSBuild.proj. We have a core set steps that happens and would like to

Answer 1

The Team Build has a "bootstrap" phase where everything in the Team Build Configuration folder (the folder with TFSBuild.proj) is downloaded from version control. This is performed by the build agent before the build agent calls MSBuild.exe telling it to run TFSBuild.proj.

If you move your targets file from under SolutionRoot and place it in your configuration folder alongside the TFSBuild.proj file you will then be able to import it in your TFSBuild.proj file using a relative import statement i.e.

If these targets rely on any additional custom MSBuild task assemblies then you can also have them in the same folder as your TFSBuild.proj file and you can reference them easily using a relative path.

Note that in TFS2008, the build configuration folder defaults to being under $/TeamProject/TeamBuildTypes however, it does not have to be there. It can actually live in a folder that is inside your solution - and can even be a project in your solution dedicated to Team Build. This has several advantages including making branching of the build easier. Therefore I typically have my build located in a folder like this:

$/TeamProject/main/MySolution/TeamBuild

Also note that by default, during the bootstrap phase of the build, the build agent will only download files that are in the build configuration folder and will not recurse down into any subfolders. If you wanted it to include files in subfolders during the bootstrap phase then you can set the following property in the appSettings of the tfsbuildserver.exe.config file on the build agent machines (located in %ProgramFiles%\Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies)

Note that if you had multiple build agents you would have to remember to set this setting on all of the machines, and it would affect every build performed by that build agent - so really it is best just to keep the files in the root of the build configuration folder if you can.

Good luck,

Martin.