How to copy Azure DevOps files to other physical network folder

Question

In Azure DevOps, I want to copy files from the bin folder to some network path folder, lets say \server\folder1\folder2.

I tried it with copy task but it is not allowing me to give this \server\folder1\folder2 physical path as its targetFolder. Here is my Copy task I've tried.

- task: CopyFiles@2
  displayName: 'Copy Files to: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
  inputs:
    contents: '**\bin\**'
    targetFolder: '\\server\folder1\folder2'

This task is failed.

Also I tried to copy through the PowerShell task which is below:

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'filePath'
    filePath: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\CopyBuildOutput.ps1
    arguments: >
      -Source "**\bin\"
      -Destination "\\server\folder1\folder2"
    displayName: 'Copy Build Output Files'

And I have this script in the CopyBuildOutput.ps1 file.

param ($Source, $Destination)
Write-Host "$Source, $Destination"
$TimeStamp = get-date -f yyyyMMddhhmm
$Destination = $Destination + $TimeStamp
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $Destination -Force
Copy-Item -Path $Source\*.* -Destination $Destination -Force

This also failed with this below error.

New-Item : The network path was not found
At D:\a\1\s\CopyBuildOutput.ps1:5 char:1
+ New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $Destination -Force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (\\Ncm-sparta\ho...Gen202204120929:String) [New-Item], IOException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CreateIntermediateDirectoriesIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand
 
##[error]PowerShell exited with code '1'.

I'm not sure how I can copy few files to the outside of DevOps. Please guide me how this can be achieved.

Appreciate your help on this. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

AFAIK, to resolve the error "New-Item : The network path was not found" try modifying the snippet like below:

steps:
- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    contents: '**\bin\**'
    targetFolder: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    pathToPublish: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)

Otherwise,

• If you want to copy bin folder to local path, use this folder to publish your build artifacts with the Copy files and Publish build artifacts tasks.

Note: Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory and Build.StagingDirectory are interchangeable. This directory is purged before each new build, so you don't have to clean it up yourself.

• This will copy files to artifact and publish artifact and run the pipeline. Create release -> add artifact -> Go to task -> Select your artifact in your folder -> Save.

References :

Copy Files task - Azure Pipelines | Microsoft Docs.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/build/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml#build-variables-devops-services