Inexplicable build failures.

[ProfitStar]

Here's a strange situation.

We use MS TFS TeamBuild for our continuous integration. The server is running Win Server 2012, Office 2007, Flare 9.

All other targets (HTML help, WebHelp) build fine, but my Printed Doc target is failing with this error: Build failed: Generation of output can not be completed. No current document.

Now for the strange part. On the very same machine, I can build this project with no problem through the Flare GUI. If I manually run the MSBuild target that builds the documentation, it works. If I simply run the same command line that the build script uses, it works. The same applies if I'm logged in as the user that the build process executes under. Also, I have other builds on this same machine running under a different continuous integration system, they build their Flare docs without a problem.

The only time this fails is when the build is triggered through TeamBuild.

When it fails, in my output folder, my images and page layouts are left behind as well as the XML file that Flare generates. The file seems to be valid XML, is sized appropriately, and contains the content that it should. The conversion of that XML file into a Word doc is where it all breaks.

Any thoughts?

[RamonS]

You covered almost everything that I could suggest. You may want to monitor the processes on the server when the build is kicked off and check if there is a Word process still running. That may cause the build to use that instance, but that instance of Word might be hung up for some reason. Is there a build that runs before the one that fails? Take a close look at that one as it may just leave things behind that screw up the next build. Alternatively, change the order in which build processes run if that is possible.

[Msquared]

Weird. More things you could try . . .

Cut down the problem output so it is, say only one topic, but leave everything else the same. If that builds OK, then add a few more topics. Keep doing this until the problem appears. Then you know the problem is triggered (but not necessarily caused by) by the size of the target, or by a specific topic in the target.

If that does not build OK either, then, time to try something else. Could it be a timing issue, caused by something else that happens at the same time as this target is building? You could test that by removing all other targets from the TeamBuild build and just leaving this one. If it builds now, you're looking for some weird interaction between the various things going on in that build. Could you have hit some file size or memory limitation or access conflict perhaps?

You could also try adding this target to one of the other builds that you say work OK. Again, if that builds OK, it's something that's specific to the failing build process. If that doesn't build OK, it's something specific to that target in any Teambuild process.

And, just a thought, you do have AV checking disabled for your build output area? It doesn't seem like this is the issue from your symptoms but I thought I'd mention it.