Does TFS Build have something like a Jenkinsfile?

Question

I've seen some custom settings files used in combination with TFS build, but nothing native. Does Team Foundation Server or Visual Studio Team Services have a Jenkinsfile-like, declarative method for defining a build process?

Do you have any specific requirements for TFS Build? That would probably help any answer to actually help you solve your problem—what I think is like a Jenkinsfile might be different to what you're expecting, so a few constraints would be useful to know. — Aurora0001, Apr 12 '17 at 15:33
I'm generally looking to provide the ability to source-control the build process, in the same way that a Jenkinsfile does. TFS build pipelines are very opinionated, and fine-grained access to them doesn't look possible. — Dave Swersky, Apr 12 '17 at 17:19

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 11 '17 at 23:27

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Visual Studio Team Services has a YAML Build feature in public preview that allows you to store your build definitions as source controlled files.

answered Dec 11 '17 at 23:27

Daniel Mann

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '17 at 16:14

The strict answer is no, in that there is no direct equivalent to a Jenkinsfile. However, there are Build Process Templates and you can use the Psake Build Automation tool in combination with templates to reduce the barriers to entry for creating a new build, test and deployment build definitions.

It is nowhere near as fluid as Jenkins' Pipelines as Code, AppVeyor's appveyor.yml, CircleCI's circleci.yml and Travis' .travis.yml. There is a wealth of information on the ALM Rangers Library of tooling and guidance solutions.

Does TFS Build have something like a Jenkinsfile?

2 Answers2