Azure pipeline: do not build again in order to run tests

Question

steps:

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: dotnet build
  inputs:
    command: 'build'
    arguments: '--configuration $(BuildConfiguration)'

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: dotnet test
  inputs:
    command: test
    projects: 'Playtech.Neon.Privacy.TestPlaytech.Neon.Privacy.Test.csproj'
    arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)'

I've noticed that the test step builds the solution again, which is stupid because the solution has already been built by the build step so the tests should just use the bin directory that's already been made.

Can it do this? How?

Answer 1

Dotnet commands like test or pack build the project by default.

There are 2 solutions to this:

1. Include the --no-build argument:

-task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: dotnet test
  inputs:
    command: test
    projects: 'Playtech.Neon.Privacy.TestPlaytech.Neon.Privacy.Test.csproj'
    arguments: '--no-build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)'

2. You can execute the tests on the .dll created by the build like so:

- script: dotnet test Playtech.Neon.Privacy.TestPlaytech.Neon.Privacy.Test.dll
  workingDirectory: '<Path_To_The_Build_Directory>'
  displayName: Run Tests

You can probably do the same with the DotNetCoreCLI@2 Task but I did not test that.

But overall reading the documentation is always a good first step ;)