Azure Pipelines overview - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Azure Pipelines overview

📖 Scenario: You are working in a software development team that wants to automate building and testing their code every time they make changes. Your team uses Azure DevOps, and you want to create a simple pipeline to help with this automation.

🎯 Goal: Create a basic Azure Pipeline YAML file that defines a pipeline to build and test a simple application automatically.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a YAML file named azure-pipelines.yml.

Define a pipeline that triggers on any change to the main branch.

Add a job with a single step that runs a script to print Hello, Azure Pipelines!.

Use the ubuntu-latest virtual machine image for the job.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating builds and tests helps teams deliver software faster and with fewer errors by running tasks automatically on code changes.

💼 Career

Understanding Azure Pipelines is essential for roles in DevOps, cloud engineering, and software development to implement continuous integration and continuous delivery.

1

Create the pipeline trigger

Create a YAML file named azure-pipelines.yml and add a trigger section that triggers the pipeline on changes to the main branch.

Azure

# Your code here to add the trigger for the main branch

Need a hint?

The trigger section tells Azure Pipelines which branches to watch for changes.

2

Add a job with a virtual machine image

Add a jobs section with a job named build that uses the ubuntu-latest virtual machine image.

Azure

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - main

# Add a job named 'build' using 'ubuntu-latest' VM image below

Need a hint?

The jobs section defines what work the pipeline will do. The pool specifies the machine to run the job.

3

Add a script step to print a message

Inside the build job, add a steps section with a script step that runs echo Hello, Azure Pipelines!.

Azure

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - main

jobs:
- job: build
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

# Add a script step to echo a message below

Need a hint?

The steps section lists the commands or tasks the job will run. Use script to run shell commands.

4

Complete and validate the pipeline YAML

Ensure the azure-pipelines.yml file contains the full pipeline with trigger, job, pool, and script step as specified.

Azure

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - main

jobs:
- job: build
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
  steps:
  - script: echo Hello, Azure Pipelines!
    displayName: 'Print greeting message'

# Review and finalize your pipeline YAML

Need a hint?

Check that all parts are present and correctly indented in your YAML file.