Should I use Releases or YAML Pipelines for app deployment?

Question

In Azure DevOps we have Pipeline and Releases.

Which one should I use for deploying application ?

Will Releases be deprecated ?

Will YAML pipeline be one and primary way to build and publish apps ?

Answer 1

Both Release pipeline and YAML pipeline can be used to deploy application.

Yaml pipeline is defined in YAML file and can be versioned with your code. Release pipeline in Releases section is in classic UI view and would be easier to start with. Please check here for more information.

There is no official announcement that Classic UI pipeline will be deprecated. You can easily move from Classic Release pipeline to Yaml pipelines even if classic UI pipeline is deprecated. And you can check the Tasks yaml format definition in classic UI pipeline by clicking VIEW YAML.

However Yaml pipeline currently do not support manual triggerring for multi-stages. This is on the road map. You can check this thread for more information.

And Yaml pipeline support Template yaml pipeline, while classic release pipeline donot have this feature.

You can choose either of them according to your requirements.

Answer 2

I heared that rumors that multi stage pipelines (with deployments) will replace Releases. There is plenty of actions taken to close the gap between YAML pipelines and Releases. But I would recommend you to pick solution which is raight for you. This may help you with this: Azure Devops multistage pipeline or release, when to use what?

Tis is a great conclusion (Taken from the question above)

When this or other feature which haven't added in YAML is necessary in your team, at this time, you'd better use Release pipeline with classic UI for your product security.