Use build numbers to give meaningful names to completed builds
You can define your build process to load useful data into the name of each completed build.
Example
Tokens
Q&A
Where do I specify the build number?
What is the BuildID?
What is the Rev?
Example
For example:
The team project is named FabrikamCore.
The build definition is named CIBuild.
The build ID is 4.
The date is August 24, 2009.
The time is 9:50:43 PM.
The build has been run one time today.
You define a default build process and set BuildNumberFormat to:
$(BuildDefinitionName)_$(Date:yyyyMMdd)$(Rev:.r)
In this case, the second completed build on this day would be named:
CIBuild_20090824.2
Tokens
The following table shows how each token is resolved based on the previous example:
Token |
Replacement value based on the example earlier in this section |
|---|---|
$(BuildDefinitionName) |
CIBuild |
$(BuildID) |
4 What is the build ID? |
$(DayOfMonth) |
24 |
$(DayOfYear) |
236 |
$(Hours) |
09 |
$(Minutes) |
50 |
$(Month) |
08 |
$(Rev:.rr) |
02 (The next build on this day will be 03, and so on.) What is the Rev? |
$(Date:MMddyy) |
082409 |
$(Seconds) |
50 |
$(TeamProject) |
FabrikamCore |
$(Year:yy) |
09 |
$(year:yyyy) |
2009 |
Q&A
Where do I specify the build number?
You can:
Use the default template and then modify the Build Number Format parameter. See Use the Default Template for your build process
Develop a custom build process template, and use the UpdateBuildNumber activity. See Team Foundation Build Activities: UpdateBuildNumber.
What is the BuildID?
$(BuildID) is an internal immutable ID.
What is the Rev?
Use $(Rev:.rr) to ensure that every completed build has a unique name. When a build is completed, if nothing else in the build number has changed, the Rev integer value is incremented by one.