andyfrench.info

This post covers the basic steps I took to get a .Net 4.6.1 project written with Visual Studio 2015 and C#6 to build with Jenkins. At the time of writing Jenkins in at version 1.642. I include instructions for getting NUnit 3.0 tests to run and to output an XML test report. The project I was working on also used NuGet version 3.3.0.

Step 1 – Prepare the build server with .Net 4.6.1

You may need to install the following packages on the build server so Jenkins can build .Net 4.6.1 projects.

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 Targeting Pack
• Microsoft Build Tools 2015

Step 2 – Add MSBuild v14.0 to Jenkins

Go to Manage Jenkins > Configure System. Find the MSBuild section and click MSBuild installations… Click Add MSBuild and enter the new MSBuild details for version 14.0:

Save the configuration.

Step 3 – Create the Jenkins job

Start by creating your Jenkins build in the usual way. Setup your basic project data, source code management and build triggers as usual.

NuGet package restore

The next step is to get NuGet package restore working. NuGet package restore has changed since version 2.x and the easiest way I have found to get it to work with a basic Jenkins build is to use the command-line package restore option. This involved downloading the latest NuGet command line distribution and putting it a known location on the server.

Add a build step to Execute Windows batch command.

Edit the command to call the NuGet executable with the restore command line argument. I installed the NuGet executable to C:\Tools\NuGet.

Add MSBuild step

Next add the new MSBuild step using version 14.0 of MSBuild.

Alternative – use a batch command to call MSBuild

If you don’t want to add a new MSBuild version to Jenkins you can call MSBuild directly. When it comes to adding the MSBuild step don’t choose “Build a Visual Studio project or solution using MSBuild” but use “Execute Windows batch command” instead.

Enter the command to call MSBuild directly:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MsBuild.exe" Andy.French.Fat.Calculation.sln

Add a step to run NUnit

Before adding this step I had to download and install the latest version of NUnit (version 3.0.1) because that’s what I’d used in the project as a NuGet package to write my unit tests.

Note that the command line options for the executable have changed in version 3.x. I had to add a new –result option specifying an output file name. I also specified NUnit version 2 output format to make the data suitable for use with the existing test result plugins.

Don’t forget to add a post build action to publish your test results using the same file name as mentioned in the previous batch command.

Save your changes and you should be good to go. Phew!