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We moved to TFS 2017 (from TFS 2013 XAML builds) and the new build & release, but we mainly do windows apps. Q&A and some people are complaining about some functionality missing, for example, there is no way to specify to Keep All builds. I find it extremely strange this would not be possible. How can we do this?

I also looked into the Release part of it, but I don't see anything for Windows app. Besides, it seems that cannot keep releases indefinitely either...?

rene
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dan
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1 Answers1

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XAML and vNext are totally two different build system. The behavior is different for the new build system, there is no keep all option. You definitely couldn't use the old retention policy on XAML build for vNext.

If I mark a build or a release to be retained indefinitely, does the retention policy still apply?

No. Neither the definition's retention policy nor the maximum limits set by the administrator are applied when you mark an individual build or release to be retained indefinitely. It will remain until you stop retaining it indefinitely.

More detail about the policy please refer this tutorial: Build and release retention policies

PatrickLu-MSFT
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  • thanks for the response but that is pretty lame I must say... vNext is the next generation and they are phasing out XAML builds. the link says "In most cases you don't need to retain completed builds longer than a certain number of days" , ok then why don't you give us ability to do what we need for ALL cases not just most cases. very disappointed. – dan Oct 14 '17 at 01:09
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    @dan Sorry for bringing you inconvenience. In XAML build ,when you choose the value in the **Retention Policy column**, you could choose one of the following options: `Keep All, Keep Latest Only, Keep 2 Latest, Keep 5 Latest, Keep 7 Latest, Keep 10 Latest, or Specify Count to Keep`. As you can see, there are two many options, and some of them basically are duplicate. So in vNext build, the new retention policy greatly streamlines the options, use `days to keep` and `minimum (build numbers) to keep` to do the control. While days to keep also make sense for CI/CD projects where build often. – PatrickLu-MSFT Oct 17 '17 at 02:02
  • @dan There had been a related user voice [Bring back old style retention policies for vNext Build defintions](https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-visual-studio-team-services/suggestions/8266650-bring-back-old-style-retention-policies-for-vnext) and got completed by adding the control of build numbers. Just not have the keep all option. You could use large number of days(1000), build numbers(10000) as an ugly workaround.You could specify an integer from 1 to 80000 for `days to keep`. You could specify an integer from 0 to 900000 for `Minimum to keep`. – PatrickLu-MSFT Oct 17 '17 at 02:08
  • I only see those values and ability to change to those numbers for release not for builds - am I missing something? We create mostly WPF apps so not release not really applicable and there is no template for it, kind of pointless . – dan Oct 18 '17 at 15:05
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    @dan You should also be able to change both the value of **maximum retention policy** and **default retention policy** for builds in this link `https://{your_server}/tfs/DefaultCollection/_admin/_buildQueue` – PatrickLu-MSFT Oct 19 '17 at 10:09
  • thanks but that page not found. any ideas why? how can I get to it from link on settings screen? – dan Oct 20 '17 at 19:20
  • @dan Did you directly copy and past `_admin/_buildQue‌​ue` in the browser, it's weird if do this, I also got a Page not found error. However change to manually type the `_admin/_buildQue‌​ue` in the browser, everything works well. There maybe a space or something else cause this issue. – PatrickLu-MSFT Oct 23 '17 at 02:58
  • oh ok i included project-name that wasnt supposed to be in the url. yes I was here before but it wouldn't let me save large values - I realize it's cos I tried to set the default retention values before saving the maximum values. ok thanks for your help! – dan Oct 24 '17 at 20:01
  • thanks Patrick, the proposed answer doesn't actually answer my question but that's only one i can mark as answer, right? I specified a couple as useful, which for me is really the answer. – dan Nov 04 '17 at 21:21
  • @dan As mentioned above XAML builds can be configured to only ever keep the last x builds or keep all. However, vNext builds change how this works, to keep builds for x number of days, and keep a minimum of y. Unfortunately, you could not directly keep all with the build retention policy, either use a workaround as mentioned above or add another user voice here: https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-visual-studio-team-services – PatrickLu-MSFT Nov 06 '17 at 02:45