I need a step/task in my yaml pipeline file which will create a unique run version value

Question

I am looking for a simple step in my yaml pipeline to add 1 to the run-version number every time the task is run successfully. I then want to parse this to the outside, something like version: #{version}# I will then use replace token to pick this up and update the variable in the pipeline.

Answer 1

You can use epoch time, A unique timestamp to generate a unique version everytime when you run yaml

Answer 2

You can check counter function (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/expressions?view=azure-devops#counter).

For instance I can prepend version of my product (and increment it every single run) to the name of the run by adding this:

name: $(Major).$(Minor).$(Fix)
variables:
  Major: 2
  Minor: 0
  Fix: $[counter(variables['Major'].variables['Minor'], 0)]
steps: 
- step: ...

The result of this increases by +1 every time you run your build. You can print it out in your pipeline or use it as an argument for a task.

Answer 3

You can consider storing the unique run version value in Variable Group. So that we can make this unique value available across multiple pipelines/jobs/steps.

1.Create one Variable Group and define the version variable.

2.Manage its security and add the ProjectName Build Service as admin role, save the changes.

3.Then we can add one PS task to update the version value.

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      $url = "$($env:SYSTEM_TEAMFOUNDATIONCOLLECTIONURI)$env:SYSTEM_TEAMPROJECTID/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups/{YourVariableGroupID}?api-version=6.0-preview.2"
      $linkedVariableGroup = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer $env:SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN"}
      $versionNumber = [int]$linkedVariableGroup.variables.version.value
      $versionNumber+=1
      $linkedVariableGroup.variables.version.value=$versionNumber
      $json = $linkedVariableGroup | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100
      Invoke-RestMethod -Method PUT -Uri $url -ContentType "application/json" -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer $env:SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN"} -Body $json
  env:
      SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN: $(System.AccessToken)

Add this step at the end of your pipeline, so that this task adds 1 to the version variable every time the pipeline runs successfully. You should reply the {YourVariableGroupID} with your own VariableGroupID in above script.