Conditional Pipeline (Visual Studio Test) Task in Multi-Configuration Azure Devops 2019 Build Pipeline

Question

We have an on-premises, TFVC setup with Azure Devops 2019. I'm building a C++ library and have set-up a multi-configuration build (Debug, Release) which works fine. However, I'd like to run a set of unit tests only when the Release configuration is building. I've added a "Visual Studio Test" task which unfortunately is running under both configurations and takes way too long under the Debug configuration. Each test is run in isolation.

I'm not seeing any options to conditionally run the task (I can't edit YAML).

Is there a way to run a task in the pipeline only for a certain configuration?

Answer 1

Firstly, you must have the permissions to create, edit and delete the pipeline in the project. If you do not have the permissions, you need to contact the project administrators.

Suppose the variable for the configurations is Configuration = Debug,Release. To run a task in the pipeline only for a certain configuration:

1. If your pipeline is created using the classic editor, you can do like as the steps shown on the screenshots below.

• Set the Configuration variable in pipeline
• Set the Multi-configuration job, and add condition to skip the Visual Studio Test task when the Configuration is Debug.

2. If your pipeline is created using YAML.

• Using if conditional to skip the Visual Studio Test task.

jobs:
- job: Build
  strategy:
   maxParallel: 2
   matrix:
     DEBUG:
       Configuration: Debug
     RELEASE:
      Configuration: Release
  steps:
  - task: Bash@3
    displayName: 'Show current Configuration'
    inputs:
      targetType: 'inline'
      script: 'echo "Configuration = $(Configuration)"'

  . . .

  - ${{ if eq(variables['Configuration'], 'Release') }}:
    - task: VSTest@2
      displayName: 'VsTest - testAssemblies'
      inputs:
        platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
        configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

In this way, when the Configuration is Debug, the Visual Studio Test task will be skipped and hidden in the job run.

• Using condition to skip the Visual Studio Test task.

jobs:
- job: Build
  strategy:
   maxParallel: 2
   matrix:
     DEBUG:
       Configuration: Debug
     RELEASE:
      Configuration: Release
  steps:
  - task: Bash@3
    displayName: 'Show current Configuration'
    inputs:
      targetType: 'inline'
      script: 'echo "Configuration = $(Configuration)"'

  . . .

  - task: VSTest@2
    displayName: 'VsTest - testAssemblies'
    condition: eq(variables['Configuration'], 'Release')
    inputs:
      platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
      configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

In this way, when the Configuration is Debug, the Visual Studio Test task will be skipped but not hidden in the job run.