Is possible to pass a variable from a Build to a Release in TFS 2017?

Question

A Build definition has a custom variable that can be set when a build is queued.

Is possible to have access to that variable from a Release in the same way that is possible to have access to variables like Build.DefinitionId, Build.DefinitionName, Build.BuildNumber ?

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 20 '17 at 10:06

I've managed to do this with an extension from the TFS marketplace, called 'Variable (de|re)Hydration Tasks', from naked Agility Ltd. This extension provides build- and release tasks with which you basically can save your build variables and restore them in your release. It does this by prefixes, so you can save/restore all default build variables that are prefixed with 'BUILD-', but if you prefix your own variables with i.e. 'ABC_' you can also save them from your build and restore them in your release.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

2

A custom build variable couldn't be used in your release definition. Here is an user voice that similar to your problem: https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-team-services/suggestions/14515326-project-level-build-release-variables. You could vote and add comment below.

As a workaround, you could copy those build variables and their values to a Variable groups. Then add the Variable group to your release definition. This is a new feature in TFS 2017 Update1.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Apr 20 '17 at 07:23

Tingting0929

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The variable groups are a great option, to share values among releases, but when it came to share information between a build and a release, they are useless – XtianGIS Apr 20 '17 at 13:02
How do you get variable from specific Build (like artifact) and not just shared static value from Variable group? Is it possible? – Gregory Suvalian Jun 09 '17 at 00:35
@Tingting0929 link is not available now – leo Martin Feb 06 '20 at 14:28

score -3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 19 '17 at 13:30

-3

Have you tried just passing the variable into the task definition like $(MyVariable) (where MyVariable is the custom variable name)?

answered Apr 19 '17 at 13:30

Daniel Morritt

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Even as $(Build.MyVariable) – XtianGIS Apr 19 '17 at 15:25

Is possible to pass a variable from a Build to a Release in TFS 2017?

3 Answers3

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