azure devops - Create xml with artifact files

Question

I have a hard time getting any information on how to do this.

I want to include a task in my build pipeline that creates an XML file that lists each file of the resulting artifact along with some metadata like checksum, size, etc.

Something like this:

<files>
  <file>
    <name>file1.dll</name>
    <path></path>
    <size></size>
    <checksum></checksum>
  </file>
  <file>
    <name>file2.dll</name>
    <path></path>
    <size></size>
    <checksum></checksum>
  </file>
</files>

I'm thinking I probably need to use a powershell script but how would I go about getting the list of files? I would have to iterate through the list and populate the xml file with that list.

Or is there some task I use to achieve this?

Answer 1

Place the resulting artifact files into a specific directory on the agent, such as $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory).

In this directory, you can try the steps below:

1. List all files in the directory and subdirectories using the PowerShell command Get-ChildItem.

   Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory -Path path/to/dir -Recurse -Name
   

2. In a loop, do the following operations for each files:

• Gets the properties of the file using the PowerShell command Get-ItemProperty.

  Get-ItemProperty -Path path/to/file | Format-List
  

  Or using Get-ItemPropertyValue to get the properties you specify.

  Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path path/to/file -Name Property1,Property2,Property3,...
  

• Write the properties of the file to the XML file. About working with XML files in PowerShell, below are few related articles as reference.

  • https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/how-to-add-data-to-an-xml-file-using-windows-powershell/
  • https://virtualengine.co.uk/updating-and-writing-xml-files-with-powershell/