MSBuild, Team Build and the big lie

Microsoft preached up and down about how MSBuild would allow you to automate builds on a build server without having to install VS.NET. I just tried it with Team Build and I'm here to tell you thats a big lie. Check out this warning I get when running unit tests as part of the build:

MSBUILD : warning : Visual Studio Team System for Software Testers or Visual Studio Team System for Software Developers is required to run tests as part of a Team Build.

What the heck are the Team System guys thinking? This makes no sense at all. I guess as long as all you care about is converting source code into binary executables then team build will work out of the box for you. Try and do anything beyond that and you have to go install VS.NET. I must be missing something. This is just too lame.

 

3 Comments

  • Well, I don't see how they could accomplish the unit testing portions without having the VS Libraries available. I guess it's just a case of managing your expectations :-)

  • Shouldn't they be able to install the needed dlls with the build server install? Why do we need the entire IDE on the build server?

  • Well this isnt as bad as I orginally thought. You can run the VS.NET setup and only install the test tools. I used the Team Suite trial installer and just unchecked all options except for the testing tools. This is basically the same thing as installing the VS.NET Tester edition though. I would still like to see a single install for the build server.

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