Author: dustin

Searching for Specific Packages in NuGet

Package searches in NuGet hit the query API and the query API, by default, does a substring search. This obviously might get annoying when a simple string that you’re searching for might appear within any of the searchable characteristics of many different packages.

However, since this is the standard query interface, and you can pass more than just flat strings, you can also modify the query to do an exact search using the “PackageId” modifier:

C:\>nuget list zebus
Zebus 1.4.6
Zebus.Directory 1.2.10
Zebus.Directory.Cassandra 1.2.10
Zebus.Directory.Standalone 1.2.10
Zebus.Persistence 1.0.2
Zebus.Persistence.CQL 1.0.2
Zebus.Persistence.CQL.Testing 1.0.2
Zebus.Testing 1.4.6

C:\>nuget list PackageId:zebus
Zebus 1.4.6

TFS 2015 Database Structure Investigation

A TFS 2015 build agent maintains a list of directories where builds occur. Each of these directories is assigned a monotonically-incrementing number and has three children: “s” (“source” directory where your files are, usually, automatically checked-out for you), “b” (“binaries” directory where you can choose to stash files that aren’t automatically cleaned-up), and “a” (“artifact-staging” directory where you push files/directories that will be published). Each agent assigns its own IDs for each build definition.

I sought to figure out 1) how to lookup the mapping between the build-definitions and these agent-ID pairs, and 2) how to lookup the paths when you publish a build to be stored by the TFS server (rather than a fileshare). Every so often I wander into the TFS database to chip away at its elusive topology. I’ll briefly document my observations here for the benefit of myself and others. I’ll add on new information as I might encounter it in the future. I’m only currently concerned with build-definitions but any information that can be provided for release-definitions would also be welcomes.

There is a main database (e.g. “Tfs_Configuration”) and subordinate collection-specific database (e.e. “Tfs_DefaultCollection”).

[Build].[tbl_Build]

Information on individual builds including build numbers (e.g. 20160512.1) and “definition ID”.

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
,[DataspaceId]
,[BuildId]
,[DefinitionId]
,[DefinitionVersion]
,[BuildNumber]
,[BuildNumberRevision]
,[RepositoryId]
,[BranchId]
,[SourceVersion]
,[Parameters]
,[Status]
,[QueueId]
,[QueueTime]
,[Priority]
,[StartTime]
,[FinishTime]
,[Reason]
,[Result]
,[RequestedFor]
,[RequestedBy]
,[ChangedOn]
,[ChangedBy]
,[OrchestrationId]
,[Deleted]
,[ValidationIssues]
,[QueueOptions]
,[KeepForever]
,[ChangesCalculated]
,[DeletedOn]
FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[Build].[tbl_Build]

Record looks like:

PartitionId DataspaceId BuildId DefinitionId    DefinitionVersion   BuildNumber BuildNumberRevision RepositoryId    BranchId    SourceVersion   Parameters  Status  QueueId QueueTime   Priority    StartTime   FinishTime  Reason  Result  RequestedFor    RequestedBy ChangedOn   ChangedBy   OrchestrationId Deleted ValidationIssues    QueueOptions    KeepForever ChangesCalculated   DeletedOn

1   22  168 1   58  20160701.1  1   1   2   C31 {"system.debug":"false","BuildConfiguration":"release","BuildPlatform":"any cpu"}   2   1   2016-07-01 16:11:01.2247845 3   2016-07-01 16:11:03.5025120 2016-07-01 16:11:23.2632483 1   2   FD456772-708D-496C-9259-32596770CD73    FD456772-708D-496C-9259-32596770CD73    2016-07-01 16:11:23.450 02442124-655A-49B2-A6FB-20269EDEBEF6    E6ABEC05-179C-4406-91CB-E96B9B6CFD7C    0   NULL    NULL    0   1   NULL

[Build].[tbl_Definition]

Describes individual build-definitions, presumably. Includes “definition ID”, “definition version” (probably a pointer to the head version), “definition name”.

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
      ,[DataspaceId]
      ,[DefinitionId]
      ,[DefinitionVersion]
      ,[DefinitionName]
      ,[Quality]
      ,[QueueId]
      ,[QueueStatus]
      ,[RepositoryId]
      ,[DefaultBranchId]
      ,[TriggerTypes]
      ,[Description]
      ,[BuildNumberFormat]
      ,[JobAuthorizationScope]
      ,[JobTimeout]
      ,[Comment]
      ,[Author]
      ,[CreatedOn]
      ,[ParentDefinitionId]
      ,[Options]
      ,[Repository]
      ,[Triggers]
      ,[Steps]
      ,[Variables]
      ,[Demands]
      ,[RetentionPolicy]
      ,[BadgeEnabled]
      ,[Deleted]
  FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[Build].[tbl_Definition]

Record looks like:

PartitionId DataspaceId DefinitionId    DefinitionVersion   DefinitionName  Quality QueueId QueueStatus RepositoryId    DefaultBranchId TriggerTypes    Description BuildNumberFormat   JobAuthorizationScope   JobTimeout  Comment Author  CreatedOn   ParentDefinitionId  Options Repository  Triggers    Steps   Variables   Demands RetentionPolicy BadgeEnabled    Deleted

1   22  1   58  ConsoleProject.Dev  1   1   0   1   1   1   NULL    $(date:yyyyMMdd)$(rev:.r)   1   60  Added publish-to-server step.   FD456772-708D-496C-9259-32596770CD73    2016-07-01 16:10:57.070 NULL    [{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"7c555368-ca64-4199-add6-9ebaf0b0137d"},"inputs":{"multipliers":"[]","parallel":"false","continueOnError":"true","additionalFields":"{}"}},{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"a9db38f9-9fdc-478c-b0f9-464221e58316"},"inputs":{"workItemType":"1","assignToRequestor":"true","additionalFields":"{}"}},{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"57578776-4c22-4526-aeb0-86b6da17ee9c"},"inputs":{"additionalFields":"{}"}}]    {"properties":{"labelSources":"0","tfvcMapping":"{\"mappings\":[{\"serverPath\":\"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db\",\"mappingType\":\"map\",\"localPath\":\"\\\\\"},{\"serverPath\":\"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db/Drops\",\"mappingType\":\"cloak\",\"localPath\":\"\\\\\"}]}"},"id":"$/","type":"TfsVersionControl","name":"d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db","url":"http://dustin-pc:8181/tfs/DefaultCollection/","defaultBranch":"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db","rootFolder":"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db","clean":"false","checkoutSubmodules":false}  NULL    [{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution $/TestProject/TestConsoleApplication.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db/TestConsoleApplication.sln","msbuildArgs":"/target:publish /p:ApplicationVersion=1.0.2.2 /p:InstallUrl=\\\\localhost\\clickonce\\consoletestfrombuild\\ /p:UpdateUrl=\\\\localhost\\clickonce\\consoletestfrombuild\\ /p:PublishUrl=\\\\localhost\\clickonce\\consoletestfrombuild\\ /p:UpdateEnabled=true /p:UpdateMode=Foreground /p:ProductName=TestConsoleApplication /p:IsWebBootstrapper=false","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution $/TestProject/TestDatabase.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db/TestDatabase.sln","msbuildArgs":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Run script $/TestProject/TestScripts/TestEcho.cmd","task":{"id":"bfc8bf76-e7ac-4a8c-9a55-a944a9f632fd","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"filename":"$/d67f9d95-2f6c-43f0-aa2f-6f7804fde7db/TestScripts/TestEcho.cmd","arguments":"","modifyEnvironment":"false","workingFolder":"","failOnStandardError":"false"}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Copy Files to: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)","task":{"id":"5bfb729a-a7c8-4a78-a7c3-8d717bb7c13c","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"SourceFolder":"$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\\TestConsoleApplication\\bin\\Release","Contents":"**\\*","TargetFolder":"$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)","CleanTargetFolder":"true","OverWrite":"false"}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Copy Files to: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\\deployment\\Release\\Utility","task":{"id":"5bfb729a-a7c8-4a78-a7c3-8d717bb7c13c","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"SourceFolder":"$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\\Release\\Utility","Contents":"**\\*","TargetFolder":"$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\\deployment\\Release\\Utility","CleanTargetFolder":"false","OverWrite":"false"}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Copy Files to: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/TestDatabase1","task":{"id":"5bfb729a-a7c8-4a78-a7c3-8d717bb7c13c","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"SourceFolder":"$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\\TestDatabase1\\bin\\Release","Contents":"TestDatabase1.dacpac","TargetFolder":"$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/TestDatabase1","CleanTargetFolder":"false","OverWrite":"false"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Publish Artifact: drop","task":{"id":"2ff763a7-ce83-4e1f-bc89-0ae63477cebe","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"PathtoPublish":"$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)","ArtifactName":"drop","ArtifactType":"FilePath","TargetPath":"\\\\localhost\\build_publish\\$(Build.DefinitionName)\\$(Build.BuildNumber)"}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Publish Artifact: Published_$(Build.BuildNumber)","task":{"id":"2ff763a7-ce83-4e1f-bc89-0ae63477cebe","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"PathtoPublish":"$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)","ArtifactName":"Published_$(Build.BuildNumber)","ArtifactType":"Container","TargetPath":"\\\\my\\share\\$(Build.DefinitionName)\\$(Build.BuildNumber)"}}]  {"system.debug":{"value":"false","allowOverride":true},"BuildConfiguration":{"value":"release","allowOverride":true},"BuildPlatform":{"value":"any cpu","allowOverride":true},"DUSTINPASSWORD":{"value":null,"allowOverride":true,"isSecret":true}} NULL    [{"branches":["+refs/heads/*"],"artifacts":["build.SourceLabel"],"daysToKeep":10,"minimumToKeep":1,"deleteBuildRecord":true,"deleteTestResults":true}]  0   0

[Build].[tbl_DefinitionHistory]

Describes the history of changes to the definition. Includes “definition ID”, “definition version”, “definition name”, and several JSON blocks.

Note that the record I provided is the most recent available (in my local sandbox environment). Though I had just made a change to a definition, it was, curiously, not represented in this table (though many other, previous, changes ones were).

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
      ,[DataspaceId]
      ,[DefinitionId]
      ,[DefinitionVersion]
      ,[DefinitionName]
      ,[QueueId]
      ,[QueueStatus]
      ,[RepositoryId]
      ,[DefaultBranchId]
      ,[Description]
      ,[BuildNumberFormat]
      ,[JobAuthorizationScope]
      ,[JobTimeout]
      ,[Comment]
      ,[Author]
      ,[CreatedOn]
      ,[Options]
      ,[Repository]
      ,[Triggers]
      ,[Steps]
      ,[Variables]
      ,[Demands]
      ,[RetentionPolicy]
      ,[BadgeEnabled]
      ,[Deleted]
  FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[Build].[tbl_DefinitionHistory]

Record looks like:

PartitionId DataspaceId DefinitionId    DefinitionVersion   DefinitionName  QueueId QueueStatus RepositoryId    DefaultBranchId Description BuildNumberFormat   JobAuthorizationScope   JobTimeout  Comment Author  CreatedOn   Options Repository  Triggers    Steps   Variables   Demands RetentionPolicy BadgeEnabled    Deleted

1   32  12  18  PWC Audit360 Simulation Build   1   0   2   9   NULL    $(date:yyyyMMdd)$(rev:.r)   1   60  NULL    FD456772-708D-496C-9259-32596770CD73    2016-05-27 18:45:03.117 [{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"7c555368-ca64-4199-add6-9ebaf0b0137d"},"inputs":{"multipliers":"[]","parallel":"false","continueOnError":"true","additionalFields":"{}"}},{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"a9db38f9-9fdc-478c-b0f9-464221e58316"},"inputs":{"workItemType":"16","assignToRequestor":"true","additionalFields":"{}"}},{"enabled":false,"definition":{"id":"57578776-4c22-4526-aeb0-86b6da17ee9c"},"inputs":{"additionalFields":"{}"}}]   {"properties":{"labelSources":"0","tfvcMapping":"{\"mappings\":[{\"serverPath\":\"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780\",\"mappingType\":\"map\",\"localPath\":\"\\\\\"},{\"serverPath\":\"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780/Drops\",\"mappingType\":\"cloak\",\"localPath\":\"\\\\\"}]}"},"id":"$/","type":"TfsVersionControl","name":"d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780","url":"http://dustin-pc:8181/tfs/DefaultCollection/","defaultBranch":"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780","rootFolder":"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780","clean":"false","checkoutSubmodules":false}  NULL    [{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"NuGet restore Audit360.Server.sln","task":{"id":"333b11bd-d341-40d9-afcf-b32d5ce6f23b","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Server.sln","nugetConfigPath":"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780/nuget.config","noCache":"false","nuGetRestoreArgs":"","nuGetPath":""}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"NuGet restore Audit360.SilverlightBuild.sln","task":{"id":"333b11bd-d341-40d9-afcf-b32d5ce6f23b","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.SilverlightBuild.sln","nugetConfigPath":"","noCache":"false","nuGetRestoreArgs":"","nuGetPath":""}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"NuGet restore Audit360.Database.sln","task":{"id":"333b11bd-d341-40d9-afcf-b32d5ce6f23b","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Database.sln","nugetConfigPath":"","noCache":"false","nuGetRestoreArgs":"","nuGetPath":""}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"NuGet restore Audit360.Queue.sln","task":{"id":"333b11bd-d341-40d9-afcf-b32d5ce6f23b","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Queue.sln","nugetConfigPath":"","noCache":"false","nuGetRestoreArgs":"","nuGetPath":""}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"NuGet restore MarketData.Database.sln","task":{"id":"333b11bd-d341-40d9-afcf-b32d5ce6f23b","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"MarketData.Database.sln","nugetConfigPath":"","noCache":"false","nuGetRestoreArgs":"","nuGetPath":""}},{"enabled":true,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution Audit360.Server.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Server.sln","msbuildArgs":"/t:build;publish /p:DeployOnBuild=True /m:1 /p:DeployPrefix=F1","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution Audit360.SilverlightBuild.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.SilverlightBuild.sln","msbuildArgs":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution Audit360.Database.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Database.sln","msbuildArgs":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution Audit360.Queue.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"Audit360.Queue.sln","msbuildArgs":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Build solution MarketData.Database.sln","task":{"id":"71a9a2d3-a98a-4caa-96ab-affca411ecda","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"solution":"MarketData.Database.sln","msbuildArgs":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","clean":"true","restoreNugetPackages":"true","vsVersion":"14.0","msbuildArchitecture":"x86","logProjectEvents":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Test Assemblies **\\$(BuildConfiguration)\\*test*.dll;-:**\\obj\\**","task":{"id":"ef087383-ee5e-42c7-9a53-ab56c98420f9","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"testAssembly":"**\\$(BuildConfiguration)\\*test*.dll;-:**\\obj\\**","testFiltercriteria":"","runSettingsFile":"","overrideTestrunParameters":"","codeCoverageEnabled":"false","runInParallel":"false","vsTestVersion":"14.0","pathtoCustomTestAdapters":"","otherConsoleOptions":"","testRunTitle":"","platform":"$(BuildPlatform)","configuration":"$(BuildConfiguration)","publishRunAttachments":"true"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":true,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Publish symbols path: ","task":{"id":"0675668a-7bba-4ccb-901d-5ad6554ca653","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"SymbolsPath":"","SearchPattern":"**\\bin\\**\\*.pdb","SymbolsFolder":"","SkipIndexing":"false","TreatNotIndexedAsWarning":"false","SymbolsMaximumWaitTime":"","SymbolsProduct":"","SymbolsVersion":"","SymbolsArtifactName":"Symbols_$(BuildConfiguration)"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":true,"displayName":"Copy Files to: $(build.artifactstagingdirectory)","task":{"id":"5bfb729a-a7c8-4a78-a7c3-8d717bb7c13c","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"SourceFolder":"$(build.sourcesdirectory)","Contents":"**\\bin\\$(BuildConfiguration)\\**","TargetFolder":"$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)","CleanTargetFolder":"false","OverWrite":"false"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":true,"displayName":"Publish Artifact: drop","task":{"id":"2ff763a7-ce83-4e1f-bc89-0ae63477cebe","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"PathtoPublish":"$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)","ArtifactName":"drop","ArtifactType":"Container","TargetPath":"\\\\my\\share\\$(Build.DefinitionName)\\$(Build.BuildNumber)"}},{"enabled":false,"continueOnError":false,"alwaysRun":false,"displayName":"Run script $/PwcSimulation/Build/RMPostBuild.cmd","task":{"id":"bfc8bf76-e7ac-4a8c-9a55-a944a9f632fd","versionSpec":"*"},"inputs":{"filename":"$/d0942daa-ac39-462f-8115-fada54d8f780/Build/RMPostBuild.cmd","arguments":"/C:FB /E:F1","modifyEnvironment":"false","workingFolder":"","failOnStandardError":"false"}}] {"system.debug":{"value":"false","allowOverride":true},"BuildConfiguration":{"value":"FB","allowOverride":true},"BuildPlatform":{"value":"any cpu","allowOverride":true}}   NULL    [{"branches":["+refs/heads/*"],"artifacts":["build.SourceLabel"],"daysToKeep":10,"minimumToKeep":1,"deleteBuildRecord":true,"deleteTestResults":true}]  0   0

[dbo].[tbl_Workspace]

Appears to describe the workspaces that are currently defined for users, builds, etc..

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
      ,[WorkspaceId]
      ,[OwnerId]
      ,[WorkspaceName]
      ,[WorkspaceVersion]
      ,[Type]
      ,[Comment]
      ,[CreationDate]
      ,[Computer]
      ,[PolicyOverrideComment]
      ,[LastAccessDate]
      ,[CheckInNoteId]
      ,[RefreshRecursive]
      ,[HasDeletedChanges]
      ,[SequentialId]
      ,[IsLocal]
      ,[PendingChangeSig]
      ,[FileTime]
      ,[LastMappingsUpdate]
      ,[ProjectNotificationId]
      ,[ItemIdCounter]
      ,[VersionStamp]
  FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[dbo].[tbl_Workspace]

Record looks like :

PartitionId WorkspaceId OwnerId WorkspaceName   WorkspaceVersion    Type    Comment CreationDate    Computer    PolicyOverrideComment   LastAccessDate  CheckInNoteId   RefreshRecursive    HasDeletedChanges   SequentialId    IsLocal PendingChangeSig    FileTime    LastMappingsUpdate  ProjectNotificationId   ItemIdCounter   VersionStamp

1   420000001   65CED833-E406-4B14-BDB2-51590FE7569C    ws_5_1  1   0   Created by Distributed Task - getCode   2016-06-29 03:47:10.363 DUSTIN-PC   NULL    2016-06-29 03:47:10.363 NULL    0   0   22  1   B2140B25-F70A-4B4D-BFB1-184703037010    0   2016-06-29 03:47:10.370 37  -1025   2.00

[dbo].[tbl_WorkingFolder]

This use of this table is unclear. It describes the paths on the disk where the build-processes for each definition are hosted, but they also include a “workspace ID”. This would make sense for individual builds but not for latent build-definitions (workspaces for builds are ephemeral, unless the build fails, and are only created once the build starts). This seems promising for where the mappings for the build directories are stored, except that there appears to be potentially many records for the same build-definitions.

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
      ,[WorkspaceId]
      ,[ItemDataspaceId]
      ,[ProjectName]
      ,[ServerItem]
      ,[LocalItem]
      ,[MappingType]
      ,[CreationDate]
      ,[Depth]
  FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[dbo].[tbl_WorkingFolder]

Record looks like:

PartitionId WorkspaceId ItemDataspaceId ProjectName ServerItem  LocalItem   MappingType CreationDate    Depth

1   320000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\1\s\  1   2016-07-01 16:11:07.500 120
1   320000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\Drops\   NULL    0   2016-07-01 16:11:07.500 120
1   360000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\3\s\  1   2016-05-24 18:22:09.760 120
1   360000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\Drops\   NULL    0   2016-05-24 18:22:09.760 120
1   420000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\5\s\  1   2016-06-29 03:47:10.363 120
1   420000001   21  TestProject $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\Drops\   NULL    0   2016-06-29 03:47:10.363 120

[dbo].[tbl_WorkingFolderHistory]

The purpose of this table is completely unclear, though it includes build location paths (just like WorkingFolder).

SELECT looks like:

SELECT TOP 1000 [PartitionId]
      ,[WorkspaceId]
      ,[ItemDataspaceId]
      ,[ServerItem]
      ,[LocalItem]
      ,[Active]
  FROM [Tfs_DefaultCollection].[dbo].[tbl_WorkingFolderHistory]

Record looks like:

PartitionId WorkspaceId ItemDataspaceId ServerItem  LocalItem   Active

1   320000001   21  $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\1\s\  1
1   320000001   21  $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\Drops\   C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\1\s\Drops\    0
1   360000001   21  $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\3\s\  1
1   400000001   31  $\d0942daa"ac39"462f"8115"fada54d8f780\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\7\s\  0
1   400000001   31  $\d0942daa"ac39"462f"8115"fada54d8f780\Drops\   C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\7\s\Drops\    0
1   420000001   21  $\d67f9d95"2f6c"43f0"aa2f"6f7804fde7db\ C:\tfs>build>agent\>work\5\s\  1
Atom UI

Managing Visual Studio/TFS Workspaces at the Command-Line

List current workspaces for your user:

C:\temp>tf workspaces /collection:tfs.hostname/tfs/ /login:\, Collection: http://tfs.hostname/tfs
Workspace Owner Computer Comment
------------ ------------ --------- -------------------------------------------------------------
CODE1 Dustin Oprea DUSTIN-PC

Map a new one locally:

C:\temp>mkdir test-workspace
C:\temp>cd test-workspace
C:\temp\test-workspace>tf workspace /new /noprompt test-workspace /collection:<TFS URL PREFIX>/<COLLECTION NAME> /login:<DOMAIN>\<USERNAME>,<PASSWORD> 
C:\temp\test-workspace>tf workfold /map "$/<PROJECT NAME>" test-workspace

Populate it:

C:\temp\test-workspace>tf get "$/<PROJECT NAME>" /Recursive

If you want to dispose of it, then, first, unmap it:

C:\temp\test-workspace>cd ..
C:\temp>tf workfold /unmap test-workspace /workspace:test-workspace /login:<DOMAIN>\<USERNAME>,<PASSWORD>
C:\temp>tf workspace /delete /noprompt test-workspace

Now, recursively delete the workspace directory.

“Unable to create the workspace ” due to a mapping conflict.”

This is a natural extension of the above:

If you’d like to list workspaces pass the TFS user as the owner:

C:\>tf workspaces /computer:<COMPUTER NAME> /collection:<TFS URL PREFIX>/<COLLECTION NAME> /owner:<OWNER NAME>
Collection: <TFS URL PREFIX>/<COLLECTION NAME>
Workspace        Owner               Computer   Comment
---------------- ------------------- ---------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<WORKSPACE NAME> <OWNER NAME> <COMPUTER NAME> Workspace Created by Team Build

Delete the workspace mentioned in the error or found via the listing:

C:\>tf workspace /delete /collection:<TFS URL PREFIX>/<COLLECTION NAME> <WORKSPACE NAME>;<OWNER NAME>

“System” process bound to port 80 in Windows: “Can not obtain ownership information”

I have a port forwarded from another host to my local port 80. Of course this is occasionally problematic as I have other things that also want to use port 80. Unfortunately, I have some projects that embed some URLs to point to port 80. So, I simply stop and start the various port 80 services as required. Unfortunately, sometimes everything is fine and other times I end-up with port 80 being bound by an unidentifiable running process seemingly no matter how often I restart, even when I’ve made sure that there are no port-80 sites in my IIS. I inexplicably don’t often run into this problem (it seems like I should).

netstat indicates that a process with PID 4 is bound to it but can’t give me its name (this is an elevated prompt):

1_Port80Bound

TCPView says that it’s actual “System” (read: Windows):

2_Port80Bound

However, it turns out that it’s the “World Wide Web Publishing Service”. Turn it off (or disable it, sue Microsoft for damages, etc..):

3_Port80Bound

 

You’ll be all set. Why does this service want port 80 when none of my sites are configured to use port 80? We’ll file it under “$!?!!%” for now.

“Invalid Credentials” When Using TFX Tool to Login to TFS

The cross-platform TFX tool is, among other things, what you use to create new boiler-plate VSIX extensions (to populate with your own information) as well as to upload individual Release Management (vNext) tasks to TFS 2015. Previously, I’ve logged in using a fully-qualified UNC-formatted username (\domain\dustin.oprea) but this started, suddenly, not working for me. I have not applied any noteworthy updates. I did recently have to change my password (per group policy), but that may or may not have affected it.

As my web-based TFS UI indicated that I was logged-in as “DOMAIN\dustin.oprea”, I unsuccessfully tried logging in as that at the command-line. Eventually, I opened up a private session within the browser in order to log-in using that same username but the UI refused to log me out (even though it was a private session, I was always logged-in). I tried clearing web credential in Windows, but, alas, nothing was stored there (if that could’ve even helped).

I also restarted the system just in case there was credentials-related caching in the system, in or outside of TFS’ application pool.

It turns out that now logging-in with a fully-qualified email-account as my username works just fine.

For example:

C:\>tfx login --auth-type basic --service-url http://localhost:8181/tfs/DefaultCollection --username dustin@email.com
TFS Cross Platform Command Line Interface v0.3.20
Copyright Microsoft Corporation
> Password:
Logged in successfully

Thanks, TFS. Do you think you might unify how users are logging-in both at the command-line and in the UI? Maybe?

Thanks to Could Not Connect, Invalid Credentials, Bad Username/ID/Password for drawing my eye to this potential option.

Odd “find” Behavior Under Windows: “paths must precede expression”

I noticed a problem in the “find” version being delivered in the currently available GnuWin32. I have csproj files strewn throughout a tree. Most of the sln files are in the root. I can search for csproj‘s but I get an error with sln‘s.

D:\sc_root>c:\gnu\find . -name "*.csproj"
<...>
^C

D:\sc_root>c:\gnu\find . -name "*.sln"
c:\gnu\find: paths must precede expression
Usage: c:\gnu\find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]

Of course I’m already using quotes to prevent premature expansion but it’s not making a difference.

It looks like this might be a recent bug. If you sabotage Windows’ ability to expand before find can process the expression by using something Windows can’t understand, then it’ll work just fine:

c:\sc_root>c:\gnu\find . -name "*[.]sln"
<...>

Special thanks for this SO post.

Collections and $, @, % Variable References in MSBuild

A very useful and illuminating article:

MSBuild: PropertyGroup, ItemGroup, Item Metadata, and crazy $@% syntax

It also expertly articulates a common feeling:

It brings me great joy that the title of this blog post is both technically accurate and evokes the type of comic-book language I use when trying to figure out MSBuild variable syntax.

It expounds on how to express discrete items, lists, and dictionaries as well as how to refer to them; even implicitly looping over collections.

At the high-level:

  • $: Refers to scalar values. Renders an empty-string for collections.
  • @: Can be used to pass collections or flatten a collection into semicolon-delimited values if used in a scalar context (like embedding in a message task). Note that the individual values will first be normalized by expanding by semicolon and then be flattened by semicolon. So, extraneous semicolons will in fact be removed.
  • %: Expand the given task into N-tasks for each item in a collection.

It’s worth mentioning that %(VariableName) will not expand in such a way that it would result in doing the same thing twice.

For example, I have a list of two assemblies and two XML files of the same two names and would like to print them:

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  <ItemGroup>
    <File Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\AncillaryAssemblies\*.*" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Inner file: %(File.Filename)" />
</Target>

Output:

1>  Inner file: EntityFramework
1>  Inner file: EntityFramework.SqlServer

However, if I were to print the extensions, as well:

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  <ItemGroup>
    <File Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\AncillaryAssemblies\*.*" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Inner file: %(File.Filename) %(File.Extension)" />
</Target>

Output:

1>  Inner file: EntityFramework .dll
1>  Inner file: EntityFramework.SqlServer .dll
1>  Inner file: EntityFramework.SqlServer .xml
1>  Inner file: EntityFramework .xml

Something to keep in mind.