Question

We have a Team City Unit test build which we call using $(teamcity_dotnet_nunitlauncher) through different MSBuild scripts. The build has an environment variable set up. Is there a way we can override the variable through the scripts?

Answer 1

Environment variables are “published” as MSBuild properties, so for example:

$(COMPUTERNAME)

…will give the value of that env var. You can override any property inside an MSBuild script…

<PropertyGroup>
    <COMPUTERNAME>NewName</COMPUTERNAME>
</PropertyGroup>

…or pass it in on the command line to MSBuild…

> msbuild My.proj /t:Target /p:COMPUTERNAME=NewName

These two ways to alter the “property” presented by an environment variable are not equal though, when passing a property via the command line, the value will not be overridden if it is declared in an MSBuild file.