Build Script Template

• CONSIDER using the build script template as a starting point for your project
• Property Structure
  • CONSIDER putting helper functions in your psakefile.ps1 when they are few and short
  • CONSIDER putting helper functions in a separate project-specific build/custom-build-helpers.ps1 file when they are more complicated

CONSIDER using the build script template as a starting point for your project

The template is a starting point for your build scripts that gives you the basic skeleton and some useful helper functions.

Copy these files to your project to start using it:

• build/general-helpers.ps1
• psake.cmd
• psakefile.ps1
• setup.cmd
• setup.ps1

Remove the items you don’t need from setup.ps1 and add the items you do need. Then update psakefile.ps1 with your customizations.

Property Structure

Properties in Psake build on top of each other, and you can override these on the command line or in subsequent parts of your build script.

properties {
   $configuration = 'Release'
   $version = '1.0.999'
   $owner = 'Headspring'
   $product = 'Sample Build Script Application'
   $yearInitiated = '2018'
   $projectRootDirectory = "$(resolve-path .)"
   $publish = "$projectRootDirectory/Publish"
   $testResults = "$projectRootDirectory/TestResults"
}

• configuration: either ‘Debug’ or ‘Release’ depending on what your build script needs (typically ‘Release’)
• version: a default version to apply to the assembly when running outside of a CI build (can be overridden on the command line)
• owner: the company that owns the copyright of the software
• product: the name of the software product that will be set in the assembly metadata
• yearInitiated: the oldest year to use for the copyright notice
• projectRootDirectory: a calculated path at startup to use for absolute paths
• publish: the directory where published binaries and files go
• testResults: the directory where published test reports go

Tasks in psakefile.ps1

These are the tasks in the sample build script and what they do:

• default: if you try to run Psake without a target, this one is used
• CI: run the sequence of tasks expected for a CI build and publish
• Rebuild: Clean up and recompile the application
• Info: display information about the runtime environment
• Test: run unit tests
• Compile: build the application
• Publish: publish the top level projects of the application
• Clean: clean up the binaries
• ? / help: call the Psake internal function to write the task details

Tasks / functions in shared global helper script

The shared global helper script is the template script has a few helper functions:

• Get-Copyright: generate a copyright message based on project properties
• Publish-Project: publish a project into the appropriate sub folder in the publish folder
• Set-Regenerated-File: replace a file’s contents if the new contents are different from the old
• Remove-Directory-Silently: delete all the files in a folder and ignore any errors

Tasks / functions in project-specific helper script

If you have custom functions that you need, you have two options:

CONSIDER putting helper functions in your psakefile.ps1 when they are few and short

Simple short functions are easier to keep in the main psakefile.ps1 to avoid needing to create a separate file.

CONSIDER putting helper functions in a separate project-specific build/custom-build-helpers.ps1 file when they are more complicated

When the helper functions are larger and more complicated, considering putting them into a separate file to keep the main psakefile.ps1 concise.