Node execution in GitVersionTfsTask

[RyanMelenaNoesis]

Please consider adding a Node execution property to GitVersionTfsTask/task.json. (example)

I believe this would allow for running the GitVersion VSO/VSTS custom task on Nix/OSX VSTS build agents. This feature would likely also depend on #854.

[asbjornu]

@RyanMelenaNoesis I have no idea what this request is for, but do I understand the implementation correctly in that all we have to do is add this:

"Node": {
    "target": "nugetinstaller.js",
    "argumentFormat": ""
}

to the task.json file?

[RyanMelenaNoesis]

@asbjornu The example I provided was for the NugetInstaller VSTS task. For the GitVersion VSTS task it would be adding something like:

"Node": {
    "target": "$(currentDirectory)\\GitVersion.js",
    "argumentFormat": ""
}

to the task.json file where GitVersion.js is a new script that does something similar to the current GitVersion.ps1

Basically, Nix/OSX don't know how to run the GitVersion.ps1 because they don't support Powershell.

[asbjornu]

@RyanMelenaNoesis Ah, that makes sense. Do you have any idea how to translate GitVersion.ps1 to GitVersion.js, then? If so, we would be very happy to receive a pull request! 😄

[RyanMelenaNoesis]

@asbjornu I could take a stab at it.

I believe the Powershell Get-LocalizedString and Invoke-Tool methods would have to be replaced because they are imported from TFS dlls.

Additionally, I'd probably need an OSX compatible version of the GitVersion.exe command line app in order to test which sounds like it is currently an issue (#854).

[asbjornu]

@RyanMelenaNoesis Excellent! As soon as we've worked out the kinks in #890, I'll merge that and we should have a working GitVersion.exe on all platforms. But you can just go ahead and get this in working condition on Windows if you can and then rebase and test on Linux/OS X once #890 is merged.

[RyanMelenaNoesis]

@asbjornu Any update on #890? We don't currently have any projects building on Windows that would make use of a Node based VSTS task. Once the OSX GitVersion.exe is working we should have a much easier time testing a possible fix.

[asbjornu]

@RyanMelenaNoesis I wish I could move #890 forward, but I don't have the time to help that with much else than code review. Currently, it seems to be halting on @JakeGinnivan providing some information on how the build providers work and @eatdrinksleepcode implementing a Travis build provider. If you're able to contribute to anything, then please fork that pull request and submit your own. 😃

[pascalberger]

Just quickly regarding the PS implementation: Implementing in a x-plat compatible fashion is definitely the way to go. This was already discussed in the original PR, but we decided to go with the PS implementation until someone has the time to provide the x-plat implementation. We should rewrite the task in TypeScript and make use of the VSTS Task SDK.

[Ivan-L]

Is this still planned? It would be great to be able to use the GitVersion VSTS build step on a Mac build agent.

[pascalberger]

@Ivan-L Rewriting the VSTS task to Node and the new VSTS Task SDK still makes sense. But I don't think anybody is currently working on it. But I would be happy to accept a PR for this :)

[sandorfr]

We've been struggling with this for monthes with @galo, so I've started the work on this. In addition to updating the execution engine I have a few proposals :

• use the build scripts we developed at GeekLearning to manage our extension (and especially package restore / typescript build)
• make sure all gitversion variable are set once using SetVariable so values are available more reliably.
• offer the ability to get GitVersion from path using which

What do you think?

WIP is visible here : https://github.com/sandorfr/GitVersion/tree/feature/node-tfs-task-and-tooling

[pascalberger]

@sandorfr Thanks for your work on this. Can you create a PR for this so that we can discuss it there?

One point. We're already using Cake for our build, and we should keep to a single build system for building everything. Of course it's possible to call a node or gulp script from the Cake script if this makes sense. Also I'm not really happy with adding a submodule and therefore add a dependency to an outside repository. If these are general purpose build scripts they should be published as npm modules IMHO.