How do I determine what target is calling my current target in Nant?

Question

I'm not even sure if my question is worded right...but I'll try to explain what I'm struggling with at the moment. I'm not highly experienced with this so forgive me if my explanations aren't the best....and I'm also trying to simplify my build script for the purposes of this question so if I'm missing some detail let me know...

I am modifying a Nant build script to run some unit tests. I have different targets for locally run tests and tests to be run on team city.

<target name="run-unit-tests">  
   <property name="test.executable" value="tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe"/>
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

<target name="run-unit-tests-teamcity"> 
   <property name="test.executable" value="${teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher}"/>   
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

in the target do-unit-tests I set up which test assemblies are run by setting a property and calling for NCover to do a code coverage run as follows:

<target name="do-unit-test">
   <property name="test.assemblies" value="MyProject.dll">
   <call target="do-unit-test-coverage" />
</target>

<target name="do-unit-test-coverage">
   <ncover <!--snip -->
           commandLineArgs="${test.args}"
   <!--snip-->
   </ncover>
</target>

As you can see in the ncover part I need a property called "test.args". This property depends on "test.assemblies"

ie: <property name="test.args" value="${test.assemblies} <!--snip -->" />

test.args needs to be set up differently between the locally run unit test and the one on team city...so I'm trying to figure out how to set this up.

if i put the property for test.args in "do-unit-test" after the property "test.assemblies" I can't specify one test.args if do-unit-test is called by run-unit-tests and another for run-unit-tests-teamcity.

I've been trying to do something like the following in "do-unit-test":

<if test="${target::exists('run-unit-tests-teamcity')}">
 <property name="test.args" value="..." />
</if>

but obviously that doesn't work because the target will always exist.

What I'd like then is to test if my current target do-unit-test has been called by run-unit-tests-teamcity

Is this possible? I can't see it in the Nant documentation? Since its not there it either means that it will be a feature in the future or that I'm not understanding how things are specified in a Nant build script.

Any help would be appreciated on this.

Answer 1

You can define properties in one target, and use their values in the other... For example, you can define

<target name="run-unit-tests">
   <property name="test.executable" value="tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe"/>
   <property name="test.extratestargs" value="foo,bar,baz"/>
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

<target name="run-unit-tests-teamcity">
   <property name="test.executable" value="${teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher}"/>         
   <property name="test.extrtestargs" value="foo,baz,quux,xyzzy"/>
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

<target name="do-unit-test-coverage">
   <property name="test.args" value="${test.assemblies} ${test.extratestargs} <!--snip -->" />
   <ncover <!--snip -->
           commandLineArgs="${test.args}" >
   <!--snip-->
   </ncover>
</target>

Or if you need them to be structured completely differently, not just have some different values, take advantage of the fact that the property substitution is delayed:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<project name="nanttest">

        <target name="run-unit-tests">
           <property name="test.executable" value="tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe"/>
           <property name="test.args" value="foo bar -assembly ${test.assemblies} baz" dynamic="true"/>
           <call target="do-unit-test"/>
        </target>

        <target name="run-unit-tests-teamcity">
           <property name="test.executable" value="${teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher}"/>
           <property name="test.args" value="foo,baz,quux /a:${test.assemblies} xyzzy" dynamic="true"/>
           <call target="do-unit-test"/>
        </target>

        <target name="do-unit-test-coverage">
           <echo message="test.executable = ${test.executable}, test.args = ${test.args}" />
        </target>

        <target name="do-unit-test">
           <property name="test.assemblies" value="MyProject.dll"/>
           <call target="do-unit-test-coverage" />
        </target>


</project>

user@host:/tmp/anttest$ nant run-unit-tests
[...snip...]
run-unit-tests:
do-unit-test:
do-unit-test-coverage:
     [echo] test.executable = tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe, test.args = foo bar -assembly MyProject.dll baz
BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 0 seconds.

user@host:/tmp/anttest$ nant -D:teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher=nunitlauncher run-unit-tests-teamcity
[...snip...]
run-unit-tests-teamcity:
do-unit-test:
do-unit-test-coverage:
     [echo] test.executable = nunitlauncher, test.args = foo,baz,quux /a:MyProject.dll xyzzy
BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 0 seconds.

If you really, really just need to know if you're running in TeamCity, then this should help:

<target name="run-unit-tests-teamcity">
   <property name="test.executable" value="${teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher}"/>         
   <property name="running.in.teamcity" value="true"/>
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

Answer 2

I've managed to solve the problem. I don't know if its the best solution but it is a solution.

I set a property called test.type and then use an if statement to determine which target it came from.

<target name="run-unit-tests">  
   <property name="test.executable" value="tools\nunit\nunit-console.exe"/>
   <property name="test.type" value="unit-tests" />
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

<target name="run-unit-tests-teamcity"> 
   <property name="test.executable" value="${teamcity.dotnet.nunitlauncher}"/>          
   <property name="test.type" value="unit-tests-teamcity" />
   <call target="do-unit-tests"/>
</target>

<target name="do-unit-test">
   <property name="test.assemblies" value="MyProject.dll">
   <call target="do-unit-test-coverage" />
</target>

<target name="do-unit-test-coverage">

   <if test="${test.type=='unit-tests'}">
      <property name="test.args" value="${test.assemblies} ..."/>
   </if>

   <if test="${test.type=='unit-tests-teamcity'}">
      <property name="test.args" value="... ${test.assemblies}"/>
   </if>

   <ncover <!--snip -->
           commandLineArgs="${test.args}"
   <!--snip-->
   </ncover>
</target>

Oh and sorry Stobor for downvoting your answer...I hate it when people downvote me but in this case I had to because someone had upvoted your answer even though it was incorrect which means my question wouldn't appear in the unanswered questions section of the site...