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powershelltfsrelease-management

Obtaining the DistributedTaskContext in a custom TFS Build/Release Script

I'm using TFS 2015 Update 2 along with the new Build/Release system. I have a powershell script I'm executing via the Powershell Task. This task executes a powershell script that needs access to the $distributedExecutionContext magic variable I see in many different VSTS Task code samples.

This script in question is not technically a task, but instead is being executed by the Powershell task that comes delivered with TFS.

No matter what I do, I can't see to obtain the $distributedExecutionContext variable. It's always null. Here is an example:

Import-Module "Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.Task.Internal"

if($distributedTaskContext)
{
    #... this never happens
}

Is this variable only available if the powershell being run is being run inside an actual task?

Solution

  • The default powershell task that you are using runs the script entirely as a different process and the $distributedTaskContext variable is not available to the script.

    It is only available only to the task's powershell script.

    If you are going to write a custom task, I would like you to use the new vsts-task-lib SDK which improves a lot over old SDK.