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  6. Build Files Cleaner (Swabra)

Build Files Cleaner (Swabra)

Last modified: 20 April 2023

Bundled Swabra plugin allows to clean files created during the build.

The plugin remembers the state of the file tree after the sources checkout and deletes all the newly added files at the end of the build or at the next build start depending on the settings. Swabra also detects files modified or deleted during the build and reports them to the build log (however, such files are not restored by the plugin). The plugin can also ensure that by the start of the build there are no files modified or deleted by previous builds and initiate clean checkout if such files are detected.

Moreover, Swabra gives the ability to dump processes which lock directory by the end of the build (requires DownloadingHandle)

Swabra can be added as a build feature to your build configuration regardless of what set of build steps you have. By configuring its options you can enable scanning checkout directory for newly created, modified and deleted files and enable file locking processes detection.

The checkout directory state is saved into a file in the caches directory named <checkout_directory_name_hash>.snapshot using the DiskDir format. The checkout directory to snapshot name map is saved into snapshot.map file. The snapshot is used later (at the end of the build or at the next build start) to determine which files and folders are newly created, modified or deleted. It is done based on the actual files' presence, last modification data and size comparison with the corresponding records in the snapshot.

Configuring Swabra Options



Option

Description

Files cleanup

Select whether you want to perform build files cleanup, and when it should be performed.

Clean checkout

Select the Force clean checkout if cannot restore clean directory state option to ensure that the checkout directory corresponds to the sources in the repository at the build start. If Swabra detects any modified or deleted files in the checkout directory before the build start, it will enforce clean checkout. The build will fail if Swabra cannot delete some files created during the previous build. If this option is disabled, you will only get warnings about modified and deleted files.

Paths to monitor

Specify newline-separated set of +|-:path rules to define what files and folders should be involved in files collection process (by default entire checkout directory is monitored). The path can be relative (based from build's checkout directory) or absolute and can include Ant-like wildcards. If no +: or -: prefix is specified, a rule as treated as "include". Specifying a directory affects its entire content and sub-directories. Rules on any path should come in order from more abstract to more concrete, e.g. use -:* /dir/ * to exclude all dir folders and their content, or -:some/dir, +:some/dir/inner to exclude some/dir folder and all its content except inner subfolder and its content.

note

Note that after removing some exclude rules, it is advisable to run a clean checkout.

Locking processes

Select whether you want Swabra to inspect the checkout directory for processes locking files in this directory, and what to do with such processes. Note that for locking processes detection DownloadingHandle is required on agents.

Verbose output

Check this option to enable detailed logging to build log.

Default excluded paths



If the build is set up to checkout on the agent, by default swabra ignores all .svn, .git, .hg, CVS folders and their content. To turn off this behaviour, specify an empty swabra.default.rules configuration parameter.

Downloading Handle



You can download handle.exe from the Administration | Tools page. Select Sysinternals handle.exe from the list of tools, specify the URL for downloading handle.exe or download it manually and specify the path on local machine, click Continue and TeamCity will automatically download or upload handle.exe and send it to Windows agents.

handle.exe is present on agents only after the upgrade process.

You may also download handle.exe, extract it on the agent and set up the handle.exe.path system property manually.

Please note that running handle.exe requires some additional permissions for the build agent user. For more details please read this thread.

Debug options



Generally snapshot file is deleted after files collection. Set the swabra.preserve.snapshot system property to preserve snapshots for debugging purposes.

Clean Checkout



Please note that Swabra may sometimes cause clean checkout to restore clean checkout directory state. To avoid unnecessary frequent clean checkouts, always set up identical Swabra build features for build configurations working in the same checkout directory. Build configurations work in the same checkout directory if either the same custom checkout directory path or same VCS settings configured for them.

Development links



See plugin page at Swabra.