TeamCity deletes files on build

Question

I am a newbie to TeamCity and Continuous Integration. I have followed this very nice guide to set everything up and it all seemed to work at first.

TC could check out the files from SVN and it could build them with no problems. However I discovered that the 'Checkout directory'-setting was wrong, it pointed one folder above where it should be hence adding all new files from SVN in the wrong place but still building on the old ones. After correcting this the problems started.

Now every time TC does a build it cleares all files in the 'Checkout directory' the problem with this is that not all files needed are managed by SVN and they are deleted forever. Since not all necessary files are there the build fails.

What should I do to make TC keep my files?

Settings from TC if it could help:

General settings edit »

Name: Mavia Build

Description: none

Build number format: {0}, next build number: #8

Artifact paths: none specifed

Fail build if:

process exit code is not zero: ON

at least one test failed: ON

an error message is logged by build runner: OFF

it runs longer than: no limit

out of memory or crash is detected: ON

Build options:

hanging builds detection: ON

status widget: OFF

maximum number of simultaneously running builds: unlimited

Version control settings edit »

VCS checkout mode: Automatically on server

Checkout directory: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mavia_sip

Clean all files before build: OFF

VCS labeling: disabled

Attached VCS roots:

Name Checkout rules Set label

mavia_sip svn not specified NO

Runner: sln2008 edit »

Type of runner: sln2008 (Runner for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 solution files)

Solution file path: mavia_sip\WebSite\mavia_sip.sln

Working directory: same as checkout directory

Targets: Rebuild

Configuration: Debug

Solution Platform: default

NUnit Run platform: auto(MSIL)

NUnit runner: NUnit 2.2.10

Run tests from: none specified

Do not run tests from: none specified

NUnit categories include: none specified

NUnit categories exclude: none specified

Reduce test failure feedback time: OFF

MSTest: disabled

XML report processing: disabled

Build triggering edit »

Build configuration is paused (triggering disabled).

Trigger build by vcs check-in: ON

Quiet period: default, 60 seconds

Start new build if last build is failed: OFF

Triggering by time: not configured

This configuration depends on: not configured

Dependencies edit »

Snapshot Dependencies:

There are no snapshot dependencies.

Artifact dependencies:

There are no artifact dependencies.

Properties and environment variables edit »

System properties: none defined

Environment variables: none defined

Agent requirements edit »

Requirements for system properties: none defined

Requirements for environment variables: none defined

Answer 1

The checkout directory should not contain any files you care about!

You should definitely be able to do "clean builds", and have TeamCity delete everything in the folder.

Answer 2

Ok this is how I did it:

First I let TC check out and build the project in a separate folder on the site. The external dll's that were needed were moved from the 'bin'-folder to a separate folder and added to subversion (also updating the referenses in Visual Studio).

Now TC could build the project with no hassle.

Second I created a Post Build Script in Visual Studio like this:

xcopy "C:\TeamCityBuild\mavia_sip\WebSite\*" "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mavia_sip\WebSite\" /C /R /Y /E
if errorlevel 1 exit 0

The error handling is only needed to avoid script errors when someone builds the project on a environment without the correct folder structure.

So far everyting is working great!