When I define a custom variable in the new TFS 2015 team build as follows:
Name: SomeOutput
Value: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\Some
...it doesn't seems to expand $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
.
Is there a way around this?
EDIT:
At least it seems it's not expanded everywhere.
For example, in MSBuild-Arguments, /p:OUTPUT="$(SomeOutput)"
is expanded to /p:OUTPUT="C:\TfsData\BuildAgents\_work\3\s\Some"
but when i add a cmd line build task with tool set to cmd
and parameter set to /k set
, it prints
SOMEOUTPUT=$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\Some
You can use the VSTS Variable Tasks extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
When you define a variable in the Variables screen and use other variables as value, they won't be expanded (as you may have expected). Instead the literal text is passed to the tasks in the workflow. Without this little task the following configuration won't work:
Variable Value Build.DropLocation \\share\drops\$(Build.DefinitionName)\$(Build.BuildNumber)
By adding the Expand variable(s) task to the top of your workflow, it will take care of the expansion, so any task below it will receive the value you're after.
https://github.com/jessehouwing/vsts-variable-tasks/wiki/Expand-Variable
PS: The new agent (version 2.x) auto-expands variables now.