Creating and Working with Build Definitions
After you establish a build system (as described in Configure Your Build System), you are almost ready to start to use Team Foundation Build to compile your code, run your tests, and perform many other important functions. The next step is to create a build definition, which contains your instructions about which code projects to compile, what actions trigger a build, what tests to run, and any other procedures required by your team.
Common Tasks
Common tasks |
Supporting content |
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Create basic builds. A build definition contains instructions about which code projects to compile, what actions trigger a build, what tests to run, and many other configurations. |
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Create custom builds. By using the Default Template, you can create a build process that meets a broad set of the most common requirements. However, many teams require their build processes to perform specialized tasks or follow customized logic. |
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Upgrade legacy MSBuild builds. You can use existing MSBuild files by using the Upgrade Template. |
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Take steps to avoid "breaking the build" When a developer checks in changes that break the build, the result can be a significant hassle for small teams. The cost to larger teams can be expensive as measured by lost productivity and schedule delays. You can create a gated check-in build definition to guard some or all of your code base against this problem. You can also use the Builds check-in policy as a tool to limit additional changes to your code base until a continuous build break is fixed. |
Define a Gated Check-In Build to Validate Changes Use the Builds Check-In Policy to Minimize Code Churn after Breaks to Continuous Builds |
Delete existing build definitions. You can delete build definitions that are no longer useful. |
See Also
Concepts
Managing and Viewing Completed Builds
Administering Team Foundation Build
Build and Deploy Databases to an Isolated Development Environment
Build and Deploy Databases to a Staging or Production Environment