.NET projects build automation with NAnt/MSBuild + SVN
- by petr k.
Hi everyone,
for quite a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to setup an automated build process at our shop. I've read many posts and guides on this matter and none of them really fits my specifics needs.
My SVN repository is laid out as follows
\projects
\projectA (a product)
\tags
\1.0.0.1
\1.0.0.2
...
\trunk
\src
\proj1 (a VS C# project)
\proj2
\documentation
Then I have a network share, with a folder for each project (product), which in turn contains the binaries, written documentation and the generated API documentation (via NDoc - each project may have an .ndoc file in the repository) for every historical version (from the tags SVN folder) and for the latest version as well (from the trunk).
Basically, what I want to do in a scheduled batch build are these steps:
examine the project's SVN folder and identify tags not present in the network share
for each of these tags
check out the tag folder
build (with Release config)
copy the resulting binaries to the network share
search for .ndoc files
generate CHM files via NDoc
copy the resulting CHM files to the network share
do the same as in 2., but for the HEAD revision of trunk
Now, the trouble is, I have no idea where to start. I do not keep .sln files in the repository, but I am able to replace these with MSBuild files which in turn build the C# projects belonging to the specific product.
I guess the most troubling part is the examination of the repository for tags which have not been processed yet - i.e. searching the tags and comparing them to a project's directory structure on the network share. I have no idea how to do that in any of the build tools (NAnt, MSBuild).
Could you please provide me with some pointers on how to approach this task as a whole and in detail as well? I do not care if I use NAnt, MSBuild, or both. I am aware that this might be rather complex, but every idea and NAnt/MSBuild snippet will be a great help.
Thanks in advance.
