Question

I’ve modified the default template to run some custom activities in the build process.

In the build process some CodeAnalysisRuleset files are created and shall be assigned to the corresponding c# projectfiles.

I have implemented two code activies to create (first activity) and assign the rulesets (second activity).

If I run the teambuild, an exception happened (“access denied”). I looked in the source folder on the build agent and the files are readonly.

The two code activities are placed after the “If CreateLabel” – activity because I though the files are already checked out at this point.

When are the files are getting checked out so i can modify them?

Is it the right way to accomplish my goal ?

Answer 1

By default the files are actually never checked out.
The real question is: would you like after your actions have taken place, to also have the changes checked in?

If yes, check this Hofman – post that describes how to check out & check in during TFS build.

If no, you can simply add an additional step to make the target file(s) read-write during build. Please check my answer in this post, where in the first section I had described how we ‘ve implemented this in our build process template with custom activity MakeFileWriteable.

Generally speaking I tend to see checking-in during build as a horrible thing to do, so i’ve managed to avoid this so far.