TFS get build agent working folder programmatically

Question

Is there any way to programmatically retrieve the working folder of a build agent (through TFS REST API)?

I'd like to clean this folder during the reboot of the build agent.

Answer 1

There isn't the REST API to retrieve the working folder of a build agent.

The working folder is defined when your deploy the build agent. Commonly it should be like this D:\VSOAgent_work (the location which you deployed the agent to).

To clean the folder during the reboot of the build agent, you just need to create a .cmd/.bat file to delete the _work directory, and copy it into the start up folder in Windows Explorer.

Please note that you need to run the cmd/bat with administrator.

Delete command sample: (Just change the dir accordingly, the command will delete all the files and sub-folders, but not delete the directory _work)

@ECHO OFF

Set dir=D:\VSOAgent\_work\

Echo Deleting all files from %dir%
del %dir%\* /F /Q

Echo Deleting all folders from %dir%
for /d %%p in (%dir%\*) Do rd /Q /S "%%p"
@echo Folder deleted.


exit

To find the Startup folder:

For your user account : Win + R run shell:startup
For all users Win + R run shell:common startup

For how to auto start Programs as Administrator, you can reference this article: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/autostart-programs-windows-10-make