Build and publish artifact task questions

Question

PublishBuildArtifacts@1
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/utility/publish-build-artifacts?view=azure-devops
Questions:
(1) What is the result of specifying artifactName? Its not clear from the docs. I see this in most of the examples, this becomes the sub-folder within the $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory) path. If I have additional tasks that build different parts of a solution containing several projects, can I specify another eg. 'drop2' or is this "drop" special?

(2) If using a private nuget feed, why must one also include a nuget.config file simply to reference the package ? The private feed is setup via a service connection in the azure project settings. Seems like you should be able to leave off

feedsToUse: 'config'
nugetConfigPath: 'Nuget.config'

(3) If I have several projects within a solution - eg. a .net core web app along with several class libs that target .net standard 2.x as well as a .net core console app, when is it better to use either of the tasks:
VSBuild@1 or DotNetCoreCLI@2
The end result of the build is I have two sub-folders in the output
drop & dropsrvc, which is exactly what I need. dropsvc has my service project in a zip file

I want to publish the .net core web app as a ready-to-copy folder in the release pipeline. I have this working, mostly by trial-and-error by re-purposing another build I did with a .net framework project, but now Im wondering if I should use the DotNetCoreCLI tasks?

So here is my yaml file. How would one replace the VS

# .NET Desktop
# Build and run tests for .NET Desktop or Windows classic desktop solutions.
# Add steps that publish symbols, save build artifacts, and more:
# https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/apps/windows/dot-net

#trigger:
#- dev

pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

variables:
  solution: '**/*.sln'
  jobSrvProj: '**/myapp.sln.job/myapp.sln.JobSrv.csproj'
  reloWeb: '**/myapp.sln.Web/myapp.sln.Web.csproj'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  buildConfiguration: 'Dev'

steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller@1

- task: NuGetCommand@2
  inputs:
    command: 'restore'
    restoreSolution: '$(solution)'
    feedsToUse: 'config'
    nugetConfigPath: 'Nuget.config'
    externalFeedCredentials: 'Telerik nuget feed'


# web
- task: VSBuild@1
  inputs:
    solution: '$(solution)'
    msbuildArgs: /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\"  /p:UseWPP_CopyWebApplication=true  /p:OutDir="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)" 
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    ArtifactName: 'drop'
    publishLocation: 'Container'


# jobSrv
- task: VSBuild@1
  inputs:
    solution: '$(jobSrvProj)'
    msbuildArgs: '/p:OutputPath="$(Build.BinariesDirectory)\jobSrv-$(Build.BuildId)"'
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

# jobSrv
- task: ArchiveFiles@2
  inputs:
    rootFolderOrFile: '$(Build.BinariesDirectory)\jobSrv-$(Build.BuildId)'
    includeRootFolder: false
    archiveType: 'zip'
    archiveFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/jobSrv-$(Build.BuildId)/jobSrv-$(Build.BuildId).zip'
    replaceExistingArchive: true

- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\jobSrv-$(Build.BuildId)'
    ArtifactName: 'dropsrvc'
    publishLocation: 'Container'

Cece Dong - MSFT Cece Dong - MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-18T10:24:40

It's the Artifact name you specify by yourself. Usually, you publish $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory) folder to DevOps. If you want to have multiple Artifacts, you could add multiple PublishBuildArtifacts task. For example:

It's not must to include a nuget.config file in Nuget task. You can either select a feed from Azure Artifacts and/or NuGet.org here, or commit a nuget.config file to your source code repository and set its path here.
VSBuild task build projects with MSBuild, while DotNetCoreCLI task build, test, package, or publish a dotnet application, or run a custom dotnet command. You could use VSBuild task to build .net framework projects, and use DotNetCoreCLI task build .net core projects in the same pipeline.

Build and publish artifact task questions

1 Answers