Set toolpath to MSBuild 2019 in a TFS 2013 using (XALM) build process templates

Question

TL;DR: Clean Windows build server, MS Build Tools 2019 and TFS 2013 installed. Build Logs says Exception Message: File not found: MSBuild.exe (type FileNotFoundException)

How Do I setup MSBUILD toolpath in a XAML file on TFS 2013, configured to use MSBuild 2019 with a Visual Studio 2019 Enterprise installed on my dev box.

Please provide FULL XAML file that WORKS with TFS2013 (update 3) with an explicit custom msbuild path.

A Bit more info:

We have a multi server setup for our TFS build routines running version 2013.

One controller and a few agent servers here and there, nothing fancy. Recently I added yet another for GUI Testing - I need the agent service to be in Interactive mode.

Steps so far:

Installed TFS 2013 including two agents - linking to the main controller. I install Build Tools version 2019 I added tags to control the build destribution.

Activated a build and the rest is history.

I'm four (frustrating) days in on this - I've read every Stack Overflow TFS set toolpath entry I can find, and a huge bunch of odd forums, yet none seems to scratch my itch here.

I even added both paths you see further down, to the Windows environment PATH variable. Im not sure that does anything anymore.

See; Everybody talks about this entry in the XAML that says toolpath (or similar) - but; I dont see it. We use a minor changed version of a TfvcTemplate.12.Xaml.

Many also talk about this GUI tool for editing XALM files, where I get to see all the different options available (I presume) - can someone help me with this too? Its certainly not working out of the box with a 2019 Enterprise???? So; I installed this Extension Process Template Editor, but of course nothing happens when I click a XAML file, just more XML :)

I now have a few added paths on the new server, where I see instances of msbuild.exe installed (MS/.NET get your act together, please)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin

Please try not to write this off as a duplicate at first glance. I know its similar to other questions - however; Devil is in the details.

user_7460777 · Answer

Set toolpath to MSBuild 2019 in a TFS 2013 using (XALM) build process templates

Just as you know, the Old Visual Studio versions installed msbuild into C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\\bin and apparently the RunMSBuild activity used the ToolVersion + the ToolArchitecture to calculate this path.

VS 2019 build tool instead installs it C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin and the RunMSBuild can't calculate the proper path anymore. You can not use the old DefaultTemplate12.xaml to integrate with VS2019 build tool.

To make this work, you could try to modify the TFSBuildServiceHost.exe.config and you must have a version of VS 2019 build tool or VS2019 installed on the build server in order for this to work.

More detail step please follow Jonesy2488's answer in this link:How to get VS 2017 working with TFS 2017 XAML Builds.

Besides, we could also try to use MSBuild task instead of Visual Studio Build task, then specify the location of MSBuild 16.0:

Hope this helps.

user_2718518 · Answer

I made it work by changing ToolVersion for mtba:RunMSBuild in TfvcTemplate.12.xaml to the required version and adding MSBuildToolsPath to Windows Registry.

Registry settings for 15.0 and 16.0

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\15.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\amd64"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\16.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions]
    
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\15.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\MSBuild\15.0\Bin"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\16.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin"

Set toolpath to MSBuild 2019 in a TFS 2013 using (XALM) build process templates

2 Answers