Recently I blabbed on and on about how to create a sane build process. One question I’ve heard in the past is what’s the point of a setting up a big formal build process when you have a very small project, perhaps with a team of one or two?

Well, I’d have to say there is no point to a BIG FORMAL build process for a small project. Rather, the build process should match the size and needs of your project and team. However, I will say this. Start early, because before you know it, your project and team will get big and you’ll be glad you have a build process in place. In the early stages, a simple NAnt (or MSBuild) script will suffice. Over time, that script will grow and grow. That’s exactly what I’m starting off with for Rss Bandit.

At this point, the script simply gets the latest version of the source code from CVS into a clean directory, compiles the code, and generates a compiled help file (.chm) using NDoc.

I plan to add a task to run unit tests, perform an FxCop analysis, and increment version numbers. However, I need to discuss version numbering with Torsten and Dare first. Eventually, I hope to add CruiseControl.NET integration. The purpose of this is to gain some experience with CCNET since I can’t yet use it at work.

Please Help!
So this is all great and dandy, but the build file doesn’t work. I’m not terribly familiar with CVS, so if anybody can help me get this working, I’ll check it in to the CVS repository for RSS Bandit.

Get the BUILD FILE HERE.