Skip to main content

Azure DevOps - Use variable in workspace mapping

Today I was having a look at a build pipeline of one of my clients. On this specific project there are still using Team Foundation Version Control(TFVC) which is still supported in Azure DevOps.

If you don't remember TFVC(or never used it before), one of the differences between TFVC and Git is the way it handles branches. In Git a branch is a pointer to a commit whereas in TFVC a branch is visualized as a separate folder in your source control tree.

In the image above we have a Main branch and a branch per release in the Release folder. You can map this folder structure to your local file system through a workspace mapping. This allows you to have multiple branches available and active at the same time on your local machine.

When using TFVC in your build pipeline, you also need to configure a workspace mapping to specify which folders should be downloaded and mapped on the file system of the build server.

Notice that I'm hardcoding the Release number(2.5) in the Server path. The trick that I discovered today is that it is possible to use build pipeline variables here. So I can define a version variable:

And update the server path to use this variable:

Now next time a new release branch is created, I only need to update the version variable. Nice!

Popular posts from this blog

Azure DevOps/ GitHub emoji

I’m really bad at remembering emoji’s. So here is cheat sheet with all emoji’s that can be used in tools that support the github emoji markdown markup: All credits go to rcaviers who created this list.

Kubernetes–Limit your environmental impact

Reducing the carbon footprint and CO2 emission of our (cloud) workloads, is a responsibility of all of us. If you are running a Kubernetes cluster, have a look at Kube-Green . kube-green is a simple Kubernetes operator that automatically shuts down (some of) your pods when you don't need them. A single pod produces about 11 Kg CO2eq per year( here the calculation). Reason enough to give it a try! Installing kube-green in your cluster The easiest way to install the operator in your cluster is through kubectl. We first need to install a cert-manager: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.14.5/cert-manager.yaml Remark: Wait a minute before you continue as it can take some time before the cert-manager is up & running inside your cluster. Now we can install the kube-green operator: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kube-green/kube-green/releases/latest/download/kube-green.yaml Now in the namespace where we want t

DevToys–A swiss army knife for developers

As a developer there are a lot of small tasks you need to do as part of your coding, debugging and testing activities.  DevToys is an offline windows app that tries to help you with these tasks. Instead of using different websites you get a fully offline experience offering help for a large list of tasks. Many tools are available. Here is the current list: Converters JSON <> YAML Timestamp Number Base Cron Parser Encoders / Decoders HTML URL Base64 Text & Image GZip JWT Decoder Formatters JSON SQL XML Generators Hash (MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512) UUID 1 and 4 Lorem Ipsum Checksum Text Escape / Unescape Inspector & Case Converter Regex Tester Text Comparer XML Validator Markdown Preview Graphic Color B