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VS2008 / TFS Build 3.5 / Ent Lib 4.1

I have a rather large solution that contains several apps. They are all currently using Enterprise Library (v.4.1) for their data access layer.

I added and locally tested a new data access layer that uses LINQ to SQL- it was fast and easy to add and the test went fine. But...

When I checked in the project, it would not complete the build - I get a "Partially Succeeded". There are some warnings, but those exact same warnings were there prior to the build failing.

I took the data access class back out (along with the code that calls it) and rebuilt and it builds fine.

I then added an empty new class and put a single variable in it and referenced it from the code. That built. I then created a new LINQ to SQL class in that new project and did not even reference it. When I checked that in, the build failed again with the "Partially Succeeded" message. No extra errors or warnings.

I love LINQ to SQL, I have used it in a few projects outside of this system, but I now have many hours into attempting to get this to build with no success.

John Saunders
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Robb Sadler
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  • When you say you've used linq for a "few projects outside of this system" Are these projects that were built by the Build server in question? You might need to update the framework on the build server. If this is corporate, one guess is that they don't perform windows updates like they should. – NotMe Mar 14 '11 at 22:39
  • "Partially succeeded" means that the build succeeded, but that some of the unit tests failed. Find out which ones failed, and why. – John Saunders Mar 15 '11 at 01:40
  • Also, which "linq" are you talking about? LINQ to SQL? – John Saunders Mar 15 '11 at 01:40
  • Unit tests are off because they were causing a problem prior to that. Linq to Sql is what I am referring to. Thanks! – Robb Sadler Mar 15 '11 at 12:44

2 Answers2

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Are all the same tools/libraries installed on the build server as on your desktop - Perhaps the server doesn't have the same vs or .net service pack level? Try running the build "manually" on the build server - load up the solution in Visual Studio on the server and execute the build within the IDE rather than under the TFS build system - this may report problems that you don't see so easily in the automated build.

Check the build log. Visual Studio often reports errors in the output pane text or build-server log text that are not picked up by the GUI error windows. So you will think a build succeeded but an output file has "quietly" not been generated. TFS build logs are usually huge so they are a pain to work through, so start by searching for keywords like "error" or the name of the project that fails rather than trying to read through line by line.

Jason Williams
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  • +1. Sounds to me like something is missing. Best bet: Look at the log, it should tell you exactly what happened. Second Best bet: log in to the build server using the tfsbuild credentials and load the project and build it. – NotMe Mar 14 '11 at 22:35
  • the build log has helped us many times in the past, but this time even with it set to detailed (35k lines) we find no errors, and the same warnings. I am suspicious of the same thing - maybe the libs are not the same. I looked in the assemblys folder and it looks the same, but I have seen weirder stuff than that. I will try the manual build from the IDE - thanks for the input! – Robb Sadler Mar 15 '11 at 12:41
  • OK, I have made a little progress. There are AfterCompile Targets and if I comment them out of my TFSBuild.proj then it compiles and I get Succeeded. – Robb Sadler Mar 15 '11 at 20:13
  • The line failing is: – Robb Sadler Mar 15 '11 at 20:13
  • So it's attempting to build the deployment packages. There must be an issue within this devenv build that fails. I am suspecting that the output of this compile is not getting to the log. – Robb Sadler Mar 15 '11 at 20:14
  • Is Visual Studio installed on your bild machine? – Jim Lamb Mar 17 '11 at 03:40
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OK, we found it. The issue is on stack overflow elsewhere at Visual Studio Setup and Deployment build fails with no errors

The issue is a bug in MS setup and deploy that breaks when it hits a line in the project that uses Linq. You have to comment out a line in the project to get it to work. Amazing, ridiculous, and no surprise.

Thanks for the input, it was that input that helped us get to the eventual answer (already on StackOverflow, but didn't have Linq in the title).

Community
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Robb Sadler
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