VSO(TFS) - get current date time as variable

Question

How can I get a current date-time and pass it as a variable to some Deployment task?

Answer 1

There is now a variable specific to a release stage named "Release.Deployment.StartTime" or if you use it in powershell the environment variable is "Release_Deployment_StartTime".

It's in UTC and the format is "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssZ"
ex: "2018-11-09 21:23:27Z"

NOTE: This variable is set at the time the deployment stage is started, so if you have pre-deployment approvals the time will be set before any approvals are completed. From my testing if you have multiple stages that execute at the same time it will be the same between them, even if one stage waits for the other due to limited agent availability.

I'm using Azure DevOps online, unsure if local TFS installations will have this.

Answer 2

An easier way is

$(Date:MMddyy)

Some options are only available in the Build Definition options section. The date formatting is one of them. However, if you were to go into the options section, set the build number format as $(Date:yyyyMMdd-HHmmss), you could then use the $(Build.BuildNumber) variable in your tasks.

More info here - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/build-release/concepts/definitions/build/variables?tabs=batch

Answer 3

For those who use Linux on tfs:

Define variable

Make sure it has "Settable at queue time set"

Create a script in root of your repository

set-build.date.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
DATE=$(date '+%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S') 
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=BUILD_DATE;]$DATE"

Other options are listed here.

Add shell script right after get sources

Type bash to find this task.

Done, you can use BUILD_DATE variable in later tasks :)

Answer 4

You can define a variable with any value, and then modify the variable as current date. Detail steps as below:

Define a variable in release

Assume the variable name is time, and we set the value as none. If you need to use the variable for a environment, you can define it in environment variables. Else you should define it in variables Tab.

Add a power shell task at the begin of deploy tasks:

Type: Inline Script.

Inline script:

$date=$(Get-Date -Format g);
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=time]$date"

Note:

• I use the date format as MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM here. You can use other date formats.
• For the subsequent deploy task, if you want to use current date time, you can direct use $(time).