Persist Version Number across Build Steps and Build Configurations

Question

I'm using TeamCity 6.5.4 and I need to have 3 build configurations for the same deployment package. I'd like to persist the version number across all three build configurations and be able to use that number to version the assembly, tag vcs, version the nuspec file, etc.

Here are the configurations and desired version numbers:

 Configuration     |  Version  
-------------------|---------
 CI/Nightly Build  |  1.1.*
 Minor Release     |  1.*.0
 Major Release     |  *.0.0

It seems that TeamCity uses a separate build incrementer for each configuration. This means every time we have a major or minor release, I'd have to manually update the persisted values (1) in all of the subsequent configurations. I'm a programmer and I'm lazy. I want a single button to do everything for me.

I've seen examples of persisting the build number through build steps of a configuration with dependent snapshots, but that only works in the same configuration.

The Autoincrementer plugin bumps up the number every time you reference the ID. This is fine for the changing numbers (*), but not so good for referencing the persisted values (1).

Is there a way for TeamCity, either natively or via plugin, to allow me to read and write that version to a file or variable that can be persisted across build configurations?

Answer 1

You can reference the build number of the dependent ( artifact / snapshot) configuration using dep.btx.build.number where btx is the bt id of the latter. Once you have the build number, pass the build number to your script running in the configuration, parse the build number in the script and send service messages from the script to Teamcity to set the build number in the way you want. Do this parsing and setting number as the first step in your script / first step in the build steps.

Answer 2

Thanks for the suggestions. I opted to write a set of custom targets to use with my MSBuild script which maintains assembly metadata in a remote xml "manifest" file. When a new TeamCity project is created, my build script calls an Init target which creates a new manifest file from an unpopulated template.

<Copy SourceFiles="@(ManifestTemplate)" DestinationFiles="@(ManifestTemplate->'$(ManifestFile)')" Condition="!Exists('$(ManifestFile)')" />

I'm using the MSBuild Extentions pack to read attributes like version information from the manifest file.

<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Xml.XmlFile TaskAction="ReadElementText" File="$(ManifestFile)" XPath="/Package/Version/Major">
  <Output PropertyName="PackageVersionMajor" TaskParameter="Value"/>
</MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Xml.XmlFile>

I have my TeamCity build configurations separated to CI, Test, Minor Release, and Major Release with different events triggering each. From the corresponding target in my project build script, I add a new target to DependsOnTargets attribute to call the custom target to update the appropriate version number and save it to the manifest file.

<Target Name="Test" DependsOnTargets="IntializeBuildProject;Build-UpdateVersion-Build">
<MSBuild Projects="$(SolutionFile)" Targets="Rebuild" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)" />
<TeamCitySetBuildNumber BuildNumber="$(PackageVersion)" />

The code in the custom target to handle the version update:

<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Science.Maths TaskAction="Add" Numbers="$(PackageVersionBuild);1">
  <Output PropertyName="PackageVersionBuild" TaskParameter="Result"/>
</MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Science.Maths>
<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Xml.XmlFile TaskAction="UpdateElement" File="$(ManifestFile)" XPath="/Package/Version/Build" InnerText="$(PackageVersionBuild)"/>

This file handles persistence of the version and other metadata thus ignoring the TeamCity build number. Since the XML metadata file is centralized, I can use the values to populate my Nuspec, AssemblyInfo, and WiX Installer metadata as well as pass the version and other pertinent information back to TeamCity through service messages.

I added a simple MVC web interface to allow my team to edit the file contents remotely if package details change. Now we have one single place to update things like Copyright information and any other metadata for a given build project. I can also give non-dev folks access to the MVC site to update branding information without allowing them access to my TeamCity build configurations.

With the exception of the service messages used to relay version to TeamCity, there's very little here that's coupled with TeamCity. I like having the functionality in custom targets and build scripts removed from TeamCity on the off chance we move to another build management solution. For that reason, I don't envision taking time to build a TeamCity plugin, but there could be a blog series coming soon.

I'll be happy to provide more code and further explanation to anyone interested.

Answer 3

Yes, you can create a plugin to do this easy. You can take my auto increment build number ( across configurations ) plugin and modify it to fit your need. The build number will be saved in a text file that is configurable from the admin screen in TeamCity.

http://github.com/ornatwork/tc_plugins/tree/master/unique

You can hit me up for input how to change it if you need.