Windows Runner to Build using Visual Studio 2022

Question

I have created a runner, and registered it. (I can dequeue a job to it that is a "do nothing job"...

But after many hours.... I simply can not get Visual Studio to be able to bve configured and launch...

Any chance of an actual YML file that illustrates building a solution:

- devenv mysolution.sln

David V_ Corbin · Answer

@Patrik S - Thanks. Your analysis is spot on. What had blocked me was that semantics valid in other places [outside of BitBuket yml pipelines] such as using an "&" before a quoted string, or using "cmd /k" and then running in a sub-command until an exit... and the like did not work ... when done inline in the yml file [all worked is I was willing to put the commands in a .ps1 script, but that incretes maintenance and hides visibility...

I will definitely checkout that Invoke-BatchFile (tomorrow, too late today - dinner is calling)

Patrik S · Answer

Hello @David V_ Corbin ,

Thank you for sharing additional context.

The issue here seems that environment variables are not transferred from the child process to the parent process.

Windows runners are executed in a PowerShell session, so when you call the batch script VsDevCmd.bat, this script will run in a separate process that inherits its parent process (powershell) variables. However, any changes to the environment variables that happen in that batch script itself are only scoped to its own process.

This means that when the batch script is completed, all the changes it applied to environment variables will not be persisted in the PowerShell session. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to transfer environment variables from a child batch process to the parent PowerShell session.

After some research, I found this Stackoverflow thread where some users recommend using the Powershell Community Extension which includes an Invoke-BatchFile command that can be used to run a batch file and persist any environment variable modification executed in the batch file. I was able to test it using the following steps :

1. Install the Powershell community extension which will enable the usage of Invoke-BatchFile command

Install-Module Pscx -Scope CurrentUser

Please note that this extension is not developed nor officially supported by either Atlassian or Microsoft.

2. Create an example script called my_script.bat to set a test environment variable:

set MY_VARIABLE=123

3. Execute the batch file in the YML file using Invoke-BatchFile and print the test variable :

pipelines:
  custom:
      TestEnvVariable:
      - step:
          name: Step 1
          runs-on:
            - 'windows'
          script:
           - Invoke-BatchFile "C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\my_script.bat"
           - $env:MY_VARIABLE

You could use a similar approach to execute the VS batch script that sets the environment, and with the variables persisted in the PowerShell session, PowerShell should be able to find the devenv.exe in PATH.

Thank you, @David V_ Corbin !

Patrik S

David V_ Corbin · Answer

(NOTE: The indentation is proper and no error are generated with the aboce. However the environment variables that need to be set via VsDevCmd.bat (including but not limited to path) are not. As a result, the call to devenv.exe fails.