Loud & Abrasive

I’ve become a big fan of Azure DevOps Pipelines. It’s a powerful and robust tool that enables really slick automated build and release processes. I wrote last about sexy auto-semversioning Nuget libraries using Build Pipelines. I’m still no expert in AzDO but am continuing to extend and improve the ways we leverage it. Recently I found a way to optimize against one of release pipelines’ biggest annoyances: app configuration for “non-transformable” config formats such as environment variables for Docker containers.

If you blinked last year (or hiked the Appalachian trail) you may have missed Microsoft’s big continuous integration service redesign and rebranding; from Visual Studio Team Services to Azure DevOps. I’ve had the surprising pleasure to work extensively on the platform since returning; migrating my client’s CI/CD operations over to build and release pipelines in Azure DevOps. So far, it has been a dream, especially compared to my past experiences with VSTS. Microsoft’s documentation on Azure DevOps is fantastic, and I’m not looking to reinvent any wheels. Instead, I’ll share a success we’ve had with managing internal Nuget packages.

It’s been a hot minute or three since I’ve emailed you. It would be easy to assume, as with previous updates, I’ve been to busy walking to get my thoughts together. At first I did not want to write this final post, but over time I realized it was unfair to leave my story without an end.

The transition to living on the trail was gradual, from all the expectations of a new adventure, starting like a long backpacking trip, growing to a way of life, then so routine it’s hard to imagine what it was like before. Coming so close to completing the trail is surreal. The time feels short, especially compared to the experience. Many of us are conflicted between a weary eagerness and an anxious fear. But for all of us the end will be a jolt, and an inevitability.