TFS 2017 CI with Gulp

Question

I have just set up a TFS 2017 server and am trying to go through the CI tutorial at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/build-release/apps/nodejs/build-gulp?tabs=vsts but am having trouble on the Gulp task. I am getting the error "Not found node: null". I am using an ubuntu agent with the most recent versions of node, npm, and gulp installed. All the tasks are configured exactly as described in the tutorial.

Answer 1

The error usually means you have an environment issue , such as node couldn't captured by TFS build agent.

For the Default agent queue:

• VSTS: Select Hosted VS2017. This is how you can use our pool of agents that have the software you need to build your app.
• TFS: Select a queue that includes a Windows build agent.

Source Link

If you are working with linux build agent, you need to use windows build agent instead of ubuntu(linux build) agent.

If you are working with windows agent, make sure the node, npm, and gulp installed before TFS build agent configured, otherwise the new capability will not captured.

You need to reconfigure the build agent or restart VSO agent service. Besides make sure your working directory of Gulp task is getting set properly.

Answer 2

I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling nodejs and npm. I believe the problem was that TFS did not sense the node.js and npm capabilities because I originally installed them using nvm, so the second time around I installed using apt packages and everything worked fine.