Powershell on Visual Studio Team Services operation requires an interactive window station

0
votes

I am trying to get a Continuous Integration system working for a Nativescript app to build. Referring to this note on the page, the windows PowerShell script:

start-process -FilePath PowerShell.exe -Verb Runas -Wait -ArgumentList "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NativeScript/nativescript-cli/production/setup/native-script.ps1'))"

should setup the nativescript environment. However, when I run this as an inline script in a PowerShell build step, the build fails with this output:

Starting task: Powershell Script
******************************************************************************
. 'C:\Users\buildguest\AppData\Local\Temp\c0d7012a-0ed3-4dcd-976b-aa0ce6f6012b.ps1' 
Executing the following powershell script. (workingFolder = C:\a\1\s)
C:\Users\buildguest\AppData\Local\Temp\c0d7012a-0ed3-4dcd-976b-aa0ce6f6012b.ps1 
start-process : This command cannot be run due to the error: This operation requires an interactive window station.
At C:\Users\buildguest\AppData\Local\Temp\c0d7012a-0ed3-4dcd-976b-aa0ce6f6012b.ps1:1 char:1
+ start-process -FilePath PowerShell.exe -Verb Runas -Wait -ArgumentList "-NoProfi ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartProcessCommand
Process completed with exit code 0 and had 1 error(s) written to the error stream.
******************************************************************************
Finishing task: PowerShell
******************************************************************************
Task PowerShell failed. This caused the job to fail. Look at the logs for the task for more details.

I think that means the script only runs if the local machine has a GUI? Which is obviously not the case for remote hosted build servers. If my assumption is correct, is there a way to work around this, or remove the dependancy on a GUI?

Update:

Here is my attempt to remove all of the user interaction from this script, but I still get the same result...

Update:

******************************************************************************
Starting task: Run C:\NPM\Modules\tns.cmd
******************************************************************************
Executing the following command-line. (workingFolder = C:\a\1\s)
C:\NPM\Modules\tns.cmd build android
Error message highlight pattern: 
Warning message highlight pattern: 
[31;1mNo project found at or above 'C:\a\1\s' and neither was a --path specified.[0m
# build android
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Γöé Usage   Γöé Synopsis                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Γöé
Γöé General Γöé $ tns build android [--compileSdk <API Level>] [--key-store-path <File Path> --key-store-password <Password> --key-store-alias <Name> --key-store-alias-password <Password>] [--release] [--static-bindings] [--copy-to <File Path>] Γöé
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Builds the project for Android and produces an APK that you can manually deploy on device or in the native emulator.
### Options
    * --compileSdk - Sets the Android SDK that will be used to build the project.
    * --release - If set, produces a release build. Otherwise, produces a debug build. When set, you must also specify the --key-store-* options.
    * --key-store-path - Specifies the file path to the keystore file (P12) which you want to use to code sign your APK. You can use the --key-store-* options along with --release to produce a signed release build. You need to specify all --key-store-* options.
    * --key-store-password - Provides the password for the keystore file specified with --key-store-path. You can use the --key-store-* options along with --release to produce a signed release build. You need to specify all --key-store-* options.
    * --key-store-alias - Provides the alias for the keystore file specified with --key-store-path. You can use the --key-store-* options along with --release to produce a signed release build. You need to specify all --key-store-* options.
    * --key-store-alias-password - Provides the password for the alias specified with --key-store-alias-password. You can use the --key-store-* options along with --release to produce a signed release build. You need to specify all --key-store-* options.
    * --static-bindings - This is an experimental feature. If set, generates static bindings from your JavaScript code to corresponding native Android APIs during build. This static bindings speed up app loading.**
    * --copy-to - Specifies the file path where the built .apk will be copied. If it points to a non-existent directory, it will be created. If the specified value is directory, the original file name will be used.
** By default, NativeScript runtime for Android uses runtime binding generator. When you extend a Java class and overwrite a lot of methods, this could be a potentially slow operation.
### Attributes
<API Level> is a valid Android API level. For example: 22, 23.
Sending exception report (press Ctrl+C to stop).....
******************************************************************************
Finishing task: CmdLine
******************************************************************************
Task CmdLine failed. This caused the job to fail. Look at the logs for the task for more details.
******************************************************************************

Note: You can use $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\ if you want the path relative to repo.

3
powershellcontinuous-integrationazure-devopsnativescript

3 Answers

2
votes

Like Alistair noted the problem is probably caused by this block:

# Self-elevate
$isElevated = ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal] [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]"Administrator")
if (-not $isElevated) {
    start-process -FilePath PowerShell.exe -Verb Runas -Wait -ArgumentList "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NativeScript/nativescript-cli/production/setup/native-script.ps1'))"
    exit 0
}

And I don't think you will be able to install Chocolatey/Java/Android SDK on the build machine as I doubt you have admin rights on the machine. But from what I see Team Services already supports Android builds so I suspect it already has the Java and Android SDKs installed. Have you tried installing only nativescript via npm install -g nativescript and then trying to build your project?

UPDATE

Put C:\NPM\Modules\tns.cmd and "Tool" and then as "Arguments" build android --path $(Build.SourcesDirectory)

1
votes

I'm assuming the problem lies in the section where you are trying to self-elevate the current script. Try using the process APIs directly rather than the Start-Process cmdlet. This also saves on a round-trip to re-download the script.

# Create a new process object that starts PowerShell
$newProcess = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo "PowerShell";

# Specify the current script path and name as a parameter
$newProcess.Arguments = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition;

# Indicate that the process should be elevated
$newProcess.Verb = "runas";

# Start the new process
[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($newProcess);

# Exit from the current, unelevated process
exit
0
votes

Based on Peter Staev's post I've successfully created a build definition on VS Team Services. It just requres 3 Steps:

  1. npm install -g nativescript
  2. npm install (set the working directory under advanced options)
  3. add a command line task with tool:

C:\NPM\Modules\tns.cmd

and arguments:

build android --release --key-store-path "PATH\your.keystore" --key-store-password $(keystore.password) --key-store-alias ALIAS --key-store-alias-password $(alias.password)

(You can use variables to secure your password)