Shovel

A scriptcs script pack enabling the creation of scriptcs (.csx) build scripts.

What is Shovel?

Shovel provides a task-centric environment that can be used to create build scripts with the full power of .Net.

How does it work?

You define a task by specifying the task name, any tasks it may be dependent on, and lastly the action(s) that should be performed by the task.

Example:

The following script defines a task named "DeployNewVersion" which is dependent on a task named "Build". The "Build" task invokes MSBuild to build a C# project. The "DeployNewVersion" task then copies the built application to a target location.

Require<Shovel>();

"Build"
  .MsBuild(msb =>
  {
    msb.Project = @"c:\my-project\my-project.csproj";
    msb.Targets("Clean", "Compile");
  });

"DeployNewVersion"
  .DependsOn("Build")
  .Do(() =>
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Deploying new version...");
    File.Copy(@"c:\my-project\bin\debug\my-project.exe", @"c:\deployment\my-project.exe");
  });

When executing the script, the task(s) to run may be specified as follows:

scriptcs mybuildscript.csx -- -tasks:DeployNewVersion

A task may declare multiple dependencies eg:

"DeployNewVersion"
  .DependsOn("Build", "Test")

Multiple tasks to run may be specified on the command line eg:

scriptcs build.csx -- -tasks:Clean,Build,Deploy

Important Powershell Information

Scriptcs uses a double dash -- to separate arguments to scripts from arguments to scriptcs. However, the double-dash has special meaning in Powershell. When running scriptcs with Shovel from Powershell, you need to escape the double-dash with a backtick (`). So the example above should be run as follows from Powershell:

scriptcs build.csx `-- -tasks:Clean,Build,Deploy

Installation

First install scriptcs. Then change to the directory where you want to create your script (or have an existing one), and use scriptcs to install Shovel to the packages directory:

scriptcs -install scriptcs.shovel

Now all you have to do is import Shovel in your script using the Require statement:

Require<Shovel>();

That's it - go build something!