Story behind the utility can be found in my blog post.
When a build of multiple tasks is being executed, often we want to abort if certain conditions do not match expectation.
Abort As Failed ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It is possible to define a verification step and let it fail. Then the whole build fails.
If you like this way, no need to read further.
Abort As Succeeded ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ While the agent is executing the build, you can abort its execution by the following PowerShell snippet,
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=agent.jobstatus;]canceled"
Write-Host "##vso[task.complete result=Canceled;]DONE"
This build would stop here, and shows as succeeded on dashboard.
If you like this way, no need to read further.
Abort As Cancelled? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Instead of marking an aborted build as failed/succeeded, I rather mark them as cancelled. But the challenge is that you cannot cancel a build from a task by default. There is simply no such settings in the build definition.
But that's why I created this utility.
Here comes the utility, which can help you abort the build as cancelled.
- Generate a Personal Access Token and make sure it has "Build (read and execute)" scope selected.
- Add this token to your pipeline under Variables section as a new variable (for example
system.pat). Make sure you click "Change variable type to secret" to lock down the value. - Add a verification task in your pipeline (Batch Script as example). Make sure
"$(system.pat)"is passed as Arguments. - In the actual batch file (
prepare.abort.batin my case), call the utility,
echo no change. abort.
set LEXTUDIO_VSTSABORT=TRUE
set SYSTEM_PAT=%~1
powershell -executionpolicy bypass -File abort.ps1
The utility checks an environment variable
LEXTUDIO_VSTSABORT. It also expects PAT to be passed via environment variableSYSTEM_PAT. All other environment variables are set by VSTS agent.
The personal access token has a life span (max one year), so it must be replaced with a valid one periodically.
Please report issues in the Issues section.