Change environment variable value between tasks in Build vNext

Question

Is there a way to persist changes in environment value between tasks in Visual Studio Team Services? I'm using Powershell to change it but it only changes it in the task not the whole process.

script 1

Write-Verbose "Before: $Env:SuperVersion"
$Env:SuperVersion = $NewVersion
Write-Verbose "After: $Env:SuperVersion"

script 2

Write-Verbose "Final: $Env:SuperVersion"

I see the change at After but Final is always getting the original value

If you want to change an environment variable value system-wide, you can set it in registry or use setx.exe. — Alexander Obersht
– Alexander Obersht, Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 5:53
thx but this is on VSO build machine where we can't access/change registry — cilerler
– cilerler, Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 11:35
See the following blog on MSDN which explains the difference between persisted and not persisted ways to set variables: blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/premier_developer/2016/04/13/… — shivesh suman
– shivesh suman, Commented Apr 6, 2017 at 18:29

cilerler · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-22 23:44:06Z

17

Based on this issue following line will do the trick.

Write-Host ("##vso[task.setvariable variable=SuperVersion;]$NewVersion")

You may find more commands like that in here

answered Oct 22, 2015 at 23:44

cilerler

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1 Comment

jurgenb Over a year ago

you don't need the brackets around the string in powershell ;)

shivesh suman · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-06 18:31:32Z

1

Correct answer has already been posted for this question below, however I think that the discussion presented at the following blog specifically targets the two different ways of setting build variables: one in which the variable will be available only within the specific task in which it is set and another using which you can set a build variable in one task and then access it in another:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/premier_developer/2016/04/13/tips-for-writing-powershell-scripts-to-use-in-build-and-release-tasks/

answered Apr 6, 2017 at 18:31

shivesh suman

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Comments

Joe B · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-18 00:27:57Z

1

I find that after using Write-Host ("##vso[task.setvariable variable=SuperVersion;]$NewVersion")
that within the same task, the value has not changed, but in later tasks that value has changed.

This is on TFS 2018 using inline powershell.

FIRST TASK

$ENV:SuperVersion = "2.0"
Write-Host ("##vso[task.setvariable variable=SuperVersion;]"3.2"")
#  Output will be "2.0"
Write-Output $ENV:SuperVersion     
$ENV:SuperVersion = "5.5"
#  Output will be "5.5" but only within the scope of this task.
Write-Output $ENV:SuperVersion

NEXT TASK

Write-Output $ENV:SuperVersion     
# Output is "3.2"

answered Jun 18, 2019 at 0:27

Joe B

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-20 10:18:27Z

0

Environment variables created with $env: are Process variables, so they're lost when the process exits and you can't access them from another process (PowerShell instance).

You need to create User or Machine environment variable:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('SuperVersion', $NewVersion, 'User')

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('SuperVersion', $NewVersion, 'Machine')

I'm not sure though, that it will work in VS Team Services, you'd have to test it.

Reference:

edited Mar 20, 2017 at 10:18

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 8, 2015 at 22:14

beatcracker

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4 Comments

cilerler Over a year ago

Thank you. Unfortunately variable is already exist on environment. And I'm not sure about its scope. That is the reason that I mention "Visual Studio Online Build" process

beatcracker Over a year ago

@cilerler If it exists, you're not setting it "globally" anyway with $env:, only per-process. It wouldn't work even on standard Windows environment.

cilerler Over a year ago

setting as machine scope thrown a permission error. setting as user scope didn't even change the value in the process.

beatcracker Over a year ago

@cilerler "setting as user scope didn't even change the value in the process." That's correct, setting User/Machine env. variable wouldn't update per-process variables for already running processes. But it should make it available next time the new process starts. See this article for a more in-depth explanation.

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