How to find the path to tf.exe from MsBuild

tfs msbuild build-server
Chris Surfleet picture Chris Surfleet · Aug 8, 2011 · Viewed 26.7k times · Source

I have an MsBuild file which shells out to TFS using tf.exe for a few things. Unfortunately the tf.exe file has been installed to different locations on the developer PCs and the build server.

I could really do with a way of detecting where the tf.exe file is located within my script in the same way you can do $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32) etc. Is this possible?

Thanks as always :)

Answer

James Woolfenden picture James Woolfenden · Aug 8, 2011

Does the environment variable VS100COMNTOOLS point to the correct path for visual studio? E.g. VS100COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Tools\

So then all you need is $(VS100COMNTOOLS)..\IDE

<Target Name="Build">
   <Exec Command="&quot;$(VS100COMNTOOLS)..\IDE\tf.exe&quot;"/>
</Target>

or however you want to tidy it up.

The environment variable changes depending on the version of Visual Studio:

  • %VS110COMNTOOLS% - Visual Studio 2012
  • %VS120COMNTOOLS% - Visual Studio 2013
  • %VS140COMNTOOLS% - Visual Studio 2015

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