Upgrading DSL

The TeamCity XML settings format is usually changed in the major releases.
During the first start after the server update, TeamCity converts XML settings files in the TeamCity Data Directory to the new format.
When settings are stored in Kotlin DSL, the Kotlin code might need to be changed to be still functional. It is also recommended to update the Kotlin code to the latest DSL API version and config version.

These recommendations are displayed as server health reports on the corresponding pages of the server administration UI.

TeamCity settings format changes

As far as the DSL is concerned, there are the following types of TeamCity settings changes.

Changes which can be performed automatically

These types of settings changes do not require changing the Kotlin DSL as the changes are applied by the server automatically on each settings regeneration from the DSL.
It is recommended though to update the DSL to a newer configs version to reduce performance hit and make Kotlin scripts closer to the settings you see in the UI.

A lot of changes in TeamCity settings fall into this category. For example, some plugin implementing a build step may rename its parameters.
The DSL from the previous TeamCity version generates a parameter with the old name, but TeamCity can automatically replace the old parameter name with the new one after DSL execution.

Changes which cannot be performed automatically

Some TeamCity settings changes require external information and cannot be performed automatically. For example, in TeamCity 10.0 the settings of the cloud integration were stored in a dedicated file which was not committed to a VCS. In TeamCity 2017.1, these settings were moved to the project level. TeamCity cannot perform such a transformation of settings automatically without external data, so manual DSL code update is required.

Versions in DSL code

Kotlin DSL API version

The DSL API version is encoded into the package name, for example: jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2019_2. The version part there corresponds to the TeamCity version when this DSL API was introduced.

The new DSL API version is usually introduced when there are significant incompatible changes in DSL API.

TeamCity preserves backward compatibility, so if you started working with Kotlin DSL in TeamCity 2017.2, you can continue using classes from the jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2017_2 package even in TeamCity 2021.2.

Configs version

This is the version specified in settings.kts, it looks like this:

version = "2019.2"

TeamCity uses this version to perform transformations after DSL execution to make resulting XML configuration files up-to-date with the current TeamCity version where they will be applied. For instance, your DSL scripts could be generated by TeamCity 2017.2 and have the version set to 2017.2. When you upgrade your server to version 2021.2, TeamCity will execute your DSL and apply additional transformations to modify the settings according to the format expected by the newest version.

Enabling versioned settings after the upgrade

After a TeamCity upgrade, the versioned settings are disabled globally on the whole TeamCity server, and a corresponding health report is shown in the administration UI. This is done to prevent TeamCity from changing the settings in the version control if you upgrade a non-production copy of the TeamCity server.

If the server is a production installation, enable versioned settings using the action in the health report. This will make TeamCity commit converted XML configuration files to the VCS. If there were any changes to projects configuration via the web interface while versioned settings were disabled, these changes will be committed to the VCS repository too when settings are enabled.

Kotlin DSL upgrade procedure

Usually, after the server upgrade, the Kotlin DSL scripts do not require any immediate changes and should produce the same result in the new TeamCity version. However, it is recommended to update the Kotlin DSL scripts to use the most recent DSL API version and configs version.

The upgrade procedure involves two steps:

Change all imports in the DSL scripts to the new DSL API package. For instance, imports like:
import jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2018_1.* import jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2018_1.projectFeatures.*
should be changed to:
import jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2019_2.* import jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2019_2.projectFeatures.*
Usually this can be done with the help of search-and-replace in all import statements. After that, and after fixing all the compilation errors which may occur after this change, the modified Kotlin files can be committed and DSL should continue working as before.
Change configs version to the most recent one, for instance, if your DSL scripts were generated by TeamCity 2018.1, your settings.kts contains:
version = "2018.1"
To change it to 2019.2, you should first review the health reports produced by your TeamCity server after it applied the most recent changes in your DSL scripts. These health reports describe what should be changed in your scripts so no additional transformations are required and you could safely change configs version.
If you see a message like:
Please change the configs version to "2019.2" in projects: <the list of projects>
then no additional changes to your DSL are required and you can change the config's version to 2019.2. Otherwise, you will receive the following message:
DSL scripts should be updated to produce settings for version 2019.2: change DSL for build configurations: <affected build configurations> to update DSL, do the following: <description of what should be changed>
You should review these suggestions and apply them to your DSL scripts. The configs version can be changed only after all these suggestions are applied.

Update DSL from 2021.1.x to 2021.2.x

This release does not introduce a new DSL API package, so v2019_2 remains the latest one.
The bundled Kotlin version has been updated to 1.5.31.
Typed DSL is now supported for numerous settings of projects and build configurations. See the whole list of improvements here.

Update DSL from 2020.2.x to 2021.1.x

This release does not introduce a new DSL API package, so v2019_2 remains the latest one.
The bundled Kotlin version has been updated to 1.4.32.
The useMirrors parameter in Git VCS roots is deprecated and replaced by the checkoutPolicy parameter that supports the following values: AUTO, USE_MIRRORS, NO_MIRRORS, SHALLOW_CLONE.
Git VCS roots in the project DSL code should be updated accordingly. For instance, useMirrors=false should be replaced with checkoutPolicy=NO_MIRRORS, while useMirrors=true with checkoutPolicy=USE_MIRRORS. If useMirrors was not specified in a Git VCS root, then checkoutPolicy=USE_MIRRORS should be added.
Read more about these checkout policies here.
The Python build steps' default value for the installToolPackage field has been changed. Since 2021.1, installToolPackage is true by default. To preserve the current behavior of the Python build steps, add installToolPackage = false to the build step settings.

Update DSL from 2020.1.x to 2020.2.x

This release does not introduce a new DSL API package, so v2019_2 remains the latest one.
The bundled Kotlin version has been updated to 1.4.21.

Update DSL from 2019.2.x to 2020.1.x

This release does not introduce a new DSL API package, so v2019_2 remains the latest one.
The bundled Kotlin version has been updated to 1.3.70.

Update DSL from 2019.1.x to 2019.2.x

The bundled Kotlin version has been updated to 1.3.60.
This release introduces the new DSL API package: v2019_2. This package has an updated API for clean-up rules and provides an ability to obtain DSL context parameters' values inside the Kotlin DSL scripts.

Updating project report tab definitions in DSL scripts

Parameters of the ReportTab project features should be changed:

The revisionRuleRevision parameter should be removed if the value of the revisionRuleName parameter is set to lastFinished, lastSuccessful, or lastPinned.
The revisionRuleRevision parameter should be renamed to revisionRuleBuildNumber if the parameter revisionRuleName has the buildNumber value.
The revisionRuleRevision parameter should be renamed to revisionRuleBuildTag and suffix .tcbuildtag should be removed from the parameter's value if the parameter revisionRuleName has the value buildTag.

DslContext.baseDir

Since TeamCity 2019.2, use the DslContext.baseDir property to access a file under the .teamcity directory from DSL scripts. For example:

val dataFile = File(DslContext.baseDir, "data/setup.xml")

This is required because TeamCity 2019.2 no longer guarantees that the current working directory for DSL scripts is the .teamcity directory.

Update DSL from 2018.2.x to 2019.1.x

This release introduces the new DSL API version, v2019_1, but its package is still jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2018_2 because there were no significant changes in the DSL between versions 2018.2.x and 2019.1.x.

Updating Maven build steps

The DSL producing Maven build steps should be updated. If a Maven build step did not have the useOwnLocalRepo parameter set to true, the following localRepoScope parameter should be added:

maven {
   ...
   localRepoScope = MavenBuildStep.RepositoryScope.MAVEN_DEFAULT
}

If useOwnLocalRepo was set to true, then it should be replaced with:

maven {
   ...
   localRepoScope = MavenBuildStep.RepositoryScope.BUILD_CONFIGURATION
}

Add version to MSBuild and VS.Solution build steps

If MSBuild or VS.Solution build steps have the parameter toolsVersion set to MSBuildStep.MSBuildToolsVersion.V15_0, the additional version = MSBuildStep.MSBuildVersion.V15_0 parameter should be added:

msBuild {
    ...
    toolsVersion = MSBuildStep.MSBuildToolsVersion.V15_0
    version = MSBuildStep.MSBuildVersion.V15_0
}

Build configuration parameter buildDefaultBranch is deprecated

The build configuration version control settings parameter buildDefaultBranch is deprecated: branchFilter should be used instead.
For instance, if buildDefaultBranch was set to false, the following branch filter should be specified instead:

vcs {
   branchFilter = """
      +:*
      -:<default>
   """
}

Update DSL from 2018.1.x to 2018.2.x

This release introduces the new DSL API version, v2018_2, its package is jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2018_2.

Update DSL from 2017.2.x to 2018.1.x

This release introduces the new DSL API version, v2018_1, its package is jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2018_1. The previous API versions work and you can keep using them if you don't want to use portable DSL scripts.

Updating Docker parameters

If you used Kotlin DSL with TeamCity 2017.2 for Docker plugin configurations, you may need to perform some changes in your Kotlin configuration scripts to make your code compatible with TeamCity 2018.1.

The essence of the changes:

build step dockerBuild is now converted to dockerCommand
the parameters for DockerBuild are now sub-parameter for commandType selector

Note the difference:

Docker Build 2 Docker Command migration

# DockerBuild in 2017.2:
dockerBuild {
    name = "name of the build step"
    source = content {
        content = """
            FROM busybox
             
            MAINTAINER KIR <kir@maxkir.com>
        """.trimIndent()
    }
    namesAndTags = "maxkir/maxkir_test"
}
#----------------------------------------
# DockerBuild in 2018.1:
dockerCommand {
    name = "name of the build step"
    commandType = build {
        source = content {
            content = """
                FROM busybox
                 
                MAINTAINER KIR <kir@maxkir.com>
            """.trimIndent()
        }
        namesAndTags = "maxkir/maxkir_test"
    }
}

Docker push command support

dockerCommand {
    name = "name of the push step"
    commandType = push {
        namesAndTags = "maxkir/maxkir_test"
    }
}

Adding label property to Gerrit publisher settings in Commit Status Publisher

Since TeamCity 2018.1 Gerrit publisher settings in the Commit Status Publisher build feature allow customising the Gerrit label that reflects the build status, i.e. now you can use something other than Verified.

To manually modify Kotlin DSL settings, the label = "Verified" statement must be added as follows:

features {
    ...
    commitStatusPublisher {
        publisher = gerrit {
            server = "<server>"
            gerritProject = "<project>"
            failureVote = "-1"
            successVote = "+1"
            userName = "<user>"
            uploadedKey = "<key>"
            label = "Verified"  // the statement to be added
        }
     }
    ...
}

Update DSL from 2017.1.x to 2017.2.x

DSL version

This release introduces the new DSL API version, v2017_2. The previous API version works and you can keep using it if you do not need the features provided by the new API.

If you used 2017.2 EAPs and tested changing DSL settings via the UI, you need to apply all the UI patches created by TeamCity before upgrading as some API is changed in an incompatible way.

The current package name for the settings generated by TeamCity is jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v2017_2.

With the new API, you can benefit from a number of new features, including the editable administration UI for Kotlin DSL projects and DSL documentation. To use them for your existing project, your .kt files should be switched to packages from the v2017_2 version.

To compile this project, you also need to update your pom.xml. The easiest way is to invoke the Download settings in Kotlin format action in your project and copy the pom.xml from the generated zip archive. Alternatively you can update pom.xml yourself with the following:
- change teamcity.dsl.version to: <teamcity.dsl.version>2017.2</teamcity.dsl.version>
- change the kotlin version to: <kotlin.version>1.1.4-3</kotlin.version> and add a dependency on kotlin-runtime and kotlin-reflect:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  <artifactId>kotlin-runtime</artifactId>
  <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  <artifactId>kotlin-reflect</artifactId>
  <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Once you switch the project to new API and check in the changes, TeamCity will detect and apply them and after that web UI editing will be enabled.
To use the new DSL API in a repository with an existing pom.xml, the maven dependency version has to be updated to 2017.2.

Updating Docker parameters

If you used Kotlin DSL with TeamCity 2017.1 for Docker plugin configurations, you may need to perform some changes in your kotlin configuration scripts to make your code compatible with TeamCity 2017.2. Basically, TeamCity provides a converter for Kotlin configuration scripts to perform those changes automatically, but if it does not work due to some reason, the following changes need to be made manually:

rename the build runner step with the Docker Build runType to DockerBuild
rename the build runner step with the Docker Compose runType to DockerCompose
rename the docker-compose.file build parameter to dockerCompose.file

Starting from TeamCity 2017.2, the Docker plugin has its own typed DSL for the Docker build feature, Docker Wrapper, Docker, and Docker Compose runners.

Docker Compose and Docker Build

steps {
    dockerCompose {
        name = "Start services"
        file = "db-tests/scripts/docker-compose.yml"
    }
 
    dockerBuild {
        name = "Docker build step"
        source = path {
            path = "some/context/Dockerfile"
        }
 
        // Case for Dockerfile specified by an URL:
        //source = url {
        //    url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JetBrains/teamcity-docker-minimal-agent/master/ubuntu/Dockerfile"
        //}
 
        // Case for Dockerfile specified by text:
        //source = content {
        //    content = """
        //        FROM busybox
        //        MAINTAINER Kirill Maximov <kir@jetbrains.com>
        //    """.trimIndent()
        //}
 
        contextDir = "some/context"
        namesAndTags = "my:tag"
    }
}

Docker Build Feature

features {
    dockerSupport {
        cleanupPushedImages = true
        loginToRegistry = on {
            dockerRegistryId = "PROJECT_EXT_2"
        }
    }
}

Command Line runner with Docker Wrapper

script {
    scriptContent = "ls -lR"
    dockerImage = "openjdk:8u121"
    dockerPull = true
    dockerRunParameters = "--rm -v /some/path:/another/path:ro"
}

Updating default project template

Since 2017.2 EAP3, TeamCity supports default templates in projects. This setting was stored in a project feature of the "DefaultTemplate" type in EAP3 and EAP4, but since 2017.2 RC the project configuration schema was changed to accommodate for default templates.
To manually convert a DSL project configuration that employs the default template, you will have to delete a corresponding project feature and replace it with the defaultTemplate property assignment as follows:

2017.2 EAP3/4 DSL project configuration with a default template configured:

object Project : Project({
    uuid = "2b241ffb-9019-4e60-9a3a-d5475ab1f312"
    extId = "ExampleProject"
    parentId = "_Root"
    name = "Example Project"
    ...
    features {
        ...
        feature {
            id = "PROJECT_EXT_4"
            type = "DefaultTemplate"
            param("template", "ExampleProject_MyDefaultTemplate")
        }
        ...
    }
    ...
})

2017.2 DSL project configuration with the default template configured:

object Project : Project({
    uuid = "2b241ffb-9019-4e60-9a3a-d5475ab1f312"
    extId = "ExampleProject"
    parentId = "_Root"
    name = "Example Project"
    defaultTemplate = "ExampleProject_MyDefaultTemplate"
    ...
    features {
        ...
    }
    ...
})

Updating .NET CLI parameters

Since 2017.2, TeamCity had been bundling the .NET CLI plugin (now reintroduced as the .NET runner). If you were using Kotlin DSL for the plugin parameters in TeamCity 2017.1.x, you need to change the commands as follows. In TeamCity 2017.1.x:

steps {
    step {
        type = "dotnet"
        param("dotnet-command", "build")
        param("dotnet-paths", "WindowsAzure.sln")
    }
}

Since TeamCity 2017.2, you can explicitly specify build steps with parameters:

steps {
    dotnetBuild {
        projects = "WindowsAzure.sln"
    }
}

Common parameters

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-command	dotnet<Command>	Now the command name reflects the build step name, e.g. `dotnetRestore`
dotnet-args	args
dotnet-verbosity	logging

dotnet build

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-build-config	configuration
dotnet-build-framework	framework
dotnet-build-output	outputDir
dotnet-build-runtime	runtime
dotnet-build-no-deps	-	Should be added as the `--no-dependencies` argument
dotnet-build-not-incremental	-	Should be added as the `--no-incremental` argument

dotnet clean

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-clean-config	configuration
dotnet-clean-framework	framework
dotnet-clean-output	outputDir
dotnet-clean-runtime	runtime

dotnet msbuild

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-msbuild-config	configuration
dotnet-msbuild-platform	platform
dotnet-msbuild-targets	targets
dotnet-msbuild-runtime	runtime

dotnet nuget delete

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-nuget-delete-id	packageId
dotnet-nuget-push-source / dotnet-nuget-delete-source	packageSource
secure:dotnet-nuget-delete-api-key	apiKey

2017.1

2017.2

dotnet-nuget-delete-id

packageId

dotnet-nuget-push-source /

dotnet-nuget-delete-source

packageSource

secure:dotnet-nuget-delete-api-key

apiKey

dotnet nuget push

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-paths	packages
dotnet-nuget-push-source	packageSource
dotnet-nuget-push-no-symbols	noSymbols
secure:dotnet-nuget-push-api-key	outputDir
dotnet-build-runtime	apiKey
dotnet-nuget-push-no-buffer	-	Should be added as the `--disable-buffering true` argument

dotnet pack

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-pack-config	configuration
dotnet-pack-runtime	runtime
dotnet-pack-no-build	skipBuild
dotnet-pack-output	outputDir
dotnet-pack-version-suffix	versionSuffix
dotnet-pack-serviceable	-	Should be added as the `--serviceable` argument

dotnet publish

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-publish-config	configuration
dotnet-publish-framework	framework
dotnet-publish-output	outputDir
dotnet-publish-runtime	runtime
dotnet-publish-version-suffix	versionSuffix

dotnet restore

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-restore-config	configFile
dotnet-restore-runtime	runtime
dotnet-restore-packages	packagesDir
dotnet-restore-source	packageSources
dotnet-restore-ignore-failed	-	Should be added as the `--ignore-failed-sources` argument
dotnet-restore-no-cache	-	Should be added as the `--no-cache` argument
dotnet-restore-parallel	-	Should be added as the `--disable-parallel` argument
dotnet-restore-root-project	-	Should be added as the `--no-dependencies` argument

dotnet run

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-run-config	configuration
dotnet-run-framework	framework
dotnet-run-runtime	runtime

dotnet test

2017.1	2017.2
dotnet-paths	projects
dotnet-test-config	configuration
dotnet-test-framework	framework
dotnet-test-no-build	skipBuild
dotnet-test-output	outputDir
dotnet-test-settings-file	settingsFile
dotnet-test-runtime	runtime
dotnet-test-test-case-filter	filter

dotnet vstest

2017.1	2017.2	Comment
dotnet-paths	assemblies
dotnet-vstest-config-file	settingsFile
dotnet-vstest-framework	framework
dotnet-vstest-platform	platform
dotnet-vstest-filter-type	filter	To filter tests by name, use `name { names = "..." }`; for the test case filter, use `filter { filter = "..." }`
dotnet-vstest-is-isolation	-	Should be added as the `/InIsolation` argument

Update DSL from 10.0.x to 2017.1.x

TeamCity 2017.1 does not introduce a new Kotlin DSL API, the same package as in TeamCity 10.0.x is used (jetbrains.buildServer.configs.kotlin.v10). Several new properties were added to the existing API; to get the latest API for the scripts development, update teamcity.dsl.version in pom.xml to the 2017.1-SNAPSHOT for EAP builds and to the 2017.1 for release builds.

Changes requiring manual Kotlin DSL scripts update

These changes should be performed before enabling versioned settings in the projects where they were disabled on TeamCity upgrade with the message: "Versioned settings are disabled in this project because its settings files were modified during TeamCity upgrade".

Converting cloud profiles

This is only relevant if you use Kotlin DSL for the Root project settings and have cloud profiles.
In 2017.1 cloud profiles were moved from the server level to the Root project level. Since they were not defined in the Kotlin DSL, in case you enable the versioned settings the existing cloud profiles will be deleted form he server. Thus before continuing to use Kotlin DSL for the root project on the server make sure to add the cloud profiles definitions to the root project settings in Kotlin DSL.

To update your settings with the cloud profile information, perform the following:

Run the 'Download settings in Kotlin format' action in the Root project and save the zip with the generated DSL.
Copy project features of type CloudIntegration and CloudProfile from the .teamcity/_Root/Project.kt file to the root project config in your settings.
Commit your changes to the VCS.
Enable versioned settings on the Versioned Settings tab of the Root project.

Names in entities

Due to the fix of issue TW-48609, if your settings contain nameless entities, TeamCity will report corresponding VCS settings errors. You need to manually set a name parameter to such entities to resolve the errors.

Updating Kotlin DSL configs version to 10.0 to 2017.1

The changes in this section should be done to Kotlin scripts on changing the scripts config version from 10.0 to 2017.1

Updating DotCover parameters

Parameters used by DotCover were changed and if you use them, make sure dotNetCoverage.tool has the dotcover value. If the dotNetCoverage.dotCover.home.path parameter is missing, set it to %teamcity.tool.JetBrains.dotCover.CommandLineTools.bundled%. The result should look like this:

param("dotNetCoverage.tool", "dotcover")
param("dotNetCoverage.dotCover.home.path", "%teamcity.tool.JetBrains.dotCover.CommandLineTools.bundled%")

If you use DotCover with custom path (for example, /custom/path), then the result should look like this:

param("dotNetCoverage.tool", "dotcover")
param("dotNetCoverage.dotCover.home.path", "/custom/path")

Updating Maven build step parameters

If you use a typed maven DSL without raw parameters, then this change should not affect you, because typed DSL generates up-to-date settings.

If you specify maven build runner settings via the param("name", "value") method, then parameters need to be updated. The easiest way to update settings is to switch to the typed DSL: you can generate settings in the Kotlin format to see what the typed DSL for Maven looks like.

If you want to continue using the param("name", "value") method, do the following:

rename the mavenSelection parameter to maven.path, change its old value to the new one:

Old value to be changed	New value
`mavenSelection:bundledM2`	`%teamcity.tool.maven%`
`mavenSelection:bundledM3_0`	`%teamcity.tool.maven3%`
`mavenSelection:bundledM3_1`	`%teamcity.tool.maven3_1%`
`mavenSelection:bundledM3_2`	`%teamcity.tool.maven3_2%`
`mavenSelection:bundledM3_3`	`%teamcity.tool.maven3_3%`
`mavenSelection:default`	`%teamcity.tool.maven.AUTO%`
`mavenSelection:custom`	value of the `maven.home` parameter

remove the maven.home parameter.

Updating PowerShell build step parameters

TeamCity 2017.1 adds support for cross-platform PowerShell. Previously PowerShell builds used only the Desktop edition and were run only on Windows.

To ensure that the existing builds remain restricted to the Desktop edition of PowerShell, set the following property in the existing PowerShell steps:

edition = PowerShellStep.Edition.Desktop

or if you use raw parameters:

param("jetbrains_powershell_edition", "Desktop")

Last modified: 26 April 2022