Free Disk Space
The Free disk space build feature allows ensuring certain free disk space on the agent before the build by deleting files managed by the TeamCity agent (other build's checkout directories and various caches).
When the feature is not configured, the default free space for a build is 3 GB.
Analyzing and freeing disk space
Before the build and before each build preparation stage, the agent will check the currently available free disk space in three locations: the agent's system, the agent's temp directory, and the build checkout directory. All the locations have to meet the same specified requirement. If the failure condition is specified, the build will fail if either of the locations does not meet the requirement.
If the amount is less than required, the agent will try to delete the data of other builds before proceeding.
The data cleaned includes:
the checkout directories that were marked for deletion
contents of other build's checkout directories in the reversed most recently used order
the cache of previously downloaded artifacts (that were downloaded to the agent via TeamCity artifact dependencies)
cleaning the local Docker caches
cleaning the local NuGet packages caches
If you need to make sure a checkout directory is never deleted while freeing disk space, set the system.teamcity.build.checkoutDir.expireHours property to never. Read more about Build Checkout Directory.
Configuring free disk space
You can use the Free Disk Space build feature to alter the default 3 GB of required disk space. Configure the settings below:
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Required free space | You can specify a custom free disk space value here (in bytes or using one of the kb, mb, gb or tb suffixes). |
Fail build if sufficient disk space cannot be freed | Enable to add the corresponding build failure condition. |
Other ways to set the free disk space value
To ensure compatibility, the free disk space value can be specified via the properties below. However, using the Free Disk Space build feature is recommended as these properties can be removed in the future TeamCity versions.
The properties can be defined:
globally for a build agent (in the agent's
buildAgent.propertiesfile)for a particular build configuration by specifying its system properties.
The required free space value is defined with the following properties:
system.teamcity.agent.ensure.free.spacefor the build checkout directorysystem.teamcity.agent.ensure.free.temp.spacefor the agent'stempdirectory
If teamcity.agent.ensure.free.temp.space is not defined, the value of the teamcity.agent.ensure.free.space property is used.
The values of these properties specify the amount of the available free disk space to be ensured before the build starts. The value should be a number followed by kb, mb, gb, kib, mib, or gib suffix. Use no suffix for bytes.
Example: system.teamcity.agent.ensure.free.space = 5gb
Here is how TeamCity will choose a free disk space value:
Use
system.teamcity.agent.ensure.free.space, defined on the agent or overridden on the project or build configuration level.If (1) is not defined, use
teamcity.agent.ensure.free.space, defined on the agent or overridden on the project or build configuration level.If (1-2) are not defined, use the custom value defined in the build feature.
If no custom values are defined, use the default value of 3 GB.
Configuring artifacts cache
A TeamCity build agent maintains a cache of published and downloaded build artifacts to reduce network transfers to the same agent. The cache is stored in the <Build Agent Home>\system\.artifacts_cache directory and is cleaned automatically provided the Free disk space build feature is configured correctly.
If caching artifacts is undesirable (for example, when the artifacts are large and not used within TeamCity, or if the artifacts cache directory is located not on the same disk as the build checkout directory, or if the builds do not define the Free disk space build feature and the default 3Gb is not sufficient for a build), caching artifacts on the agent can be turned off by adding the teamcity.agent.filecache.publishing.disabled=true configuration parameter to a project or one of the build configurations of a project. However, the agent will still cache artifacts downloaded as artifact dependencies.