What is the purpose of the comments in the YAML of a task in the build pipeline visual designer?

Question

When I look in the YAML for a task in the visual designer of my build pipeline I see comments like

#Your build pipeline references an undefined variable named ‘Parameters.projects’. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865972

Is this an instruction to me to add the Parameters.projects variable or is it just something that is there for me to refer to should I decide to use the YAML in constructing a YAML build pipeline?

Answer 1

Those are more a kind of instruction to the users in order to understand the flow.

E.g.:

Here the parameter (parameters.solution) is linked to the value **\*.sln

The YAML for this is

#Your build pipeline references an undefined variable named ‘Parameters.solution’. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865972
#Your build pipeline references the ‘BuildPlatform’ variable, which you’ve selected to be settable at queue time. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab, and then select the option to make it settable at queue time. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865971
#Your build pipeline references the ‘BuildConfiguration’ variable, which you’ve selected to be settable at queue time. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab, and then select the option to make it settable at queue time. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865971
steps:
- task: VSBuild@1
  displayName: 'Build solution'
  inputs:
    solution: '$(Parameters.solution)'

    msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\"'

    platform: '$(BuildPlatform)'

    configuration: '$(BuildConfiguration)'

Now I'm going to unlink the default value of this variable and point towards my sln file.

If I see the YAML file now the variable Parameters.solution is no longer needed, since the solution is directly assigned to the wcfapp.sln. In this case you will not see any comment in your YAML file

#Your build pipeline references the ‘BuildPlatform’ variable, which you’ve selected to be settable at queue time. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab, and then select the option to make it settable at queue time. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865971
#Your build pipeline references the ‘BuildConfiguration’ variable, which you’ve selected to be settable at queue time. Create or edit the build pipeline for this YAML file, define the variable on the Variables tab, and then select the option to make it settable at queue time. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=865971
steps:
- task: VSBuild@1
  displayName: 'Build solution'
  inputs:
    solution: wcfapp.sln

    msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\"'

    platform: '$(BuildPlatform)'

    configuration: '$(BuildConfiguration)'