How do you make TeamBuild 2015 multiple configuration options not apply to all steps?

Question

I like the concept behind MultiConfiguration via the "Options" tab in TFS 2015 TeamBuild. But I don't want the resulting "matrix build" to apply to every step in the build definition.

We generally want to run custom "post VS SLN compile steps" only once after every configuration has been compiled. And we want the artifacts generated from those steps to be "dropped" only once after the post-compile steps have completed.

Right now, using this MultiConfiguration feature causes every single step in your build recipe to be repeated for each combination (typically BuildPlatform and BuildConfiguration).

Is there are way to make MultiConfiguration apply to just the Visual Studio Build steps? I guess as a fallback, we can just not use MultiConfiguration and add a Visual Studio Build step for each combination of BuildPlatform and BuildConfiguration. That's kind of lame though.

Answer 1

Well, as you can see the expand description under Multi-configuration: Build multiple configurations with the same steps.

So either to add the custom step with multiple times built or not add the step. For now, you may have to use the fallback you mentioned in the question.

If you think it's a necessary feature request, you could add this in uservoice. The TFS administrator and PM will kindly review it.

Uservoice: https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-team-services

Answer 2

This is currently not possible. MultiConfiguration always builds all steps.

There has been talk of a Build Chaining feature from which one build an trigger a subsequent build definition. Once that's available your start build could trigger the parallel/multi-config build.

It's already possible today to continue the build process in a Release Definition. By treating the first Release Stage as a point in time to "finish up" the build steps, you could have it trigger additional steps when the parallel steps are completed.

It's not ideal, but it's what's available today.