AZURE.md

Using Azure Pipelines with C++ Projects

This guide describes how to use Azure Pipelines to build and test C++ projects. It uses a pipeline azure-pipeline.yml and a template build-template.yml for a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline.

Prerequisites

• Access to an Azure DevOps service or server.
• Follow the documentation starting with the initial general configuration.

Setting Up Your Pipeline

1. Fork the repository in GitHub or import it into Azure DevOps.
2. In Azure DevOps, navigate to Pipelines and create a new pipeline.
3. Select GitHub or Azure Repos as the code source, and select your forked/imported repository.
4. When prompted for a configuration, select "Existing Azure Pipelines YAML file" and enter the path to azure-pipeline.yml.

Configuring Build Parameters

Customize the build parameters in azure-pipeline.yml to meet the needs of your project.

• Choose between Deploy, which also publishes the build artifacts, or Build only.
• Enable or disable builds for Windows or Linux altogether. Note that if build is enabled but no matrix is generated, the pipeline will fail.

Accessing private resources

In `build/build-template.yml' look for something like this:

        ${{ if eq(parameters.agentType, 'containerized') }}:
          pool:
            vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
          container:
            image: $(container_image)
            options: -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
            # endpoint: Dockerhub # If you need access to a private container registry
        ${{ else }}:
          pool:
            vmImage: $(azure_vmImage)

Using a Private Docker Registry

• Add a Docker Registry service connection where you can specify your credentials.
• Specify the new service connection in the container settings with the key endpoint, for example:

          container:
              image: $(container_image)
              options: -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
              endpoint: myDockerhubAccount # If you need access to a private container registry

Using self-hosted agents

Instead of specifying the `vmImage', specify the pool directly by name, e.g:

        ${{ if eq(parameters.agentType, 'containerized') }}:
          pool: 'container-enabled-agents'
          container:
            image: $(container_image)
            options: -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
        ${{ else }}:
          pool: 'Win_vs2022_pool'

Limitations

• Conan is not available on Microsoft-hosted agents, installation via pip3 is done each time conan is needed and takes about 30 seconds.
• Caching of artifacts (such as conan dependencies) is not yet implemented.

Customizing the build environment

• Modify the build-template.yml file to include any additional build steps or customizations required for your project.

For a detailed walkthrough and additional configuration options, refer to the Azure Pipiles documentation.