How to keep the subfolder in DropLocation constant in TFS build

Question

I have a build definition setup with a drop location. The binaries are moved into this location, but under a new directory (named as build number) every time. Is there a way to have the same location over written everytime. we have some batch files that copy the binaries out to multiple servers that will be accessed by the end users. We need the location to remain constant so that the batch files can work correctly.

If this is not possible, is there a way for the batch files to pick the latest location which contains our exe (sometimes, the folder is created even when the build failed).

Answer 1

Having an unique name of the drop location, is something you cannot (and don't want to) change. To solve your issue, you can either

1) start the batch files with arguments (so the directory is %1) where you specify the name of the directory

2) Add a task in the build to copy all the files to a file share. If you are using TFS 2008, you can follow the steps provided at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msbuild/archive/2005/11/07/490068.aspx to copy the files.

Answer 2

If you are using TFS 2005/2008, then TFS Deployer. It flat rocks when doing deployments.

TFS 2010 has a new build deployment model that is pretty good.