.NET projects build automation with NAnt/MSBuild + SVN

Question

for quite a while now, I\'ve been trying to figure out how to setup an automated build process at our shop. I\'ve read many posts and guides on this matter and none of them real

Answer 1

UppercuT might be a great resource to check out for NAnt snippets.

http://projectuppercut.org/

Some good explanations here: UppercuT

Answer 2

In NantContrib there is a SVN command you can use to get information. Any query you can run from the SVN command line you should be able to use and then parse the result. So you could do a tag search, match the tags to folders on your network share, then perform a checkout for any that are missing using the svn-checkout command. Once done fire the msbuild command for each project folder.

An alternative if you want to have automated builds would be to create a branch instead of a tag since it looks like you are creating versions vs just a tag. If you create a branch you could have an automated build tool like CruiseControl.net or TeamCity monitory your repository. Then if a file is checked in on the Branch or Trunk you can have it kick off your automated build.

Between the two you should be able to handle it. If you would like a good example of some build scripts that have the documentation implemented in them (with zip and distribution stuff) check out the Castle Project here: http://www.castleproject.org/

They even use some of the SVN commands to get things like the revision number and what not for auto generating the assymbly info files.

Answer 3

Can you have NAnt or MSBuild call a perl or some other scripting language script to examine the svn repository and do the checkout? If you can run the build from the command line as well it sounds like everything else is just more scripting.