I have a solution, which consists out of 2 projects: regular class library for .NET 4.5 + website (not web application) project.
When I build this solution with Visual Studio - all referenced assemblies from Nuget packages and local references are copied to bin folder of website project.
If I try to build solution with MsBuild - bin folder of website project does not receive any assemblies.
Website project is not selected to be built in VS configuration (which is reported by message in both cases)
Edit - here is additional explanation.
When I clone a project from git - bin folder of website contains only 4 assemblies already checked in:
If I will run msbuild command with /t:Build or /t:Rebuild and /p:Configuration=Release;Platform="Any CPU" - I'll receive just an output of postbuild event in my other project, included in solution:
However, if I execute build from VS (Ctrl + Shift + b) in Release/Debug config - bin have all required assemblies for running web application.
Edit 2: Link to example solution - https://github.com/akuryan/csharp-website-test
When one builds it with msbuild TestApp.sln /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform="Any CPU" - this results in only Test.Core.* and LetsEncrypt.Umbraco.dll (initially checked in) found at ~\Test.Web\bin\ (where Test.Web is website project). If one builds TestApp.sln with VisualStudion 2015 (I suppose, 2013 and 2017 will be the same) - ~\Test.Web\bin\ gets whole amount of assemblies.
Different results with MsBuild and Visual Studio
That because the all dll.refresh file in bin folder alongside the binary file are ignored by .gitignore.
Since Web Site projects do not have any project file (.csproj) to put the assembly references, the *.dll.refresh files are used by MSBuild to understand the assembly references. The contents of the file is the relative path to the .dll via the packages folder for the solution. When you ignore all those .dll.refresh by .gitignore, MSBuild could not understand how to handle the dll files.
To test this, I created a website project, add a nuget package to it, then delete the dll files but keep the .dll.refresh files in the bin folder. Build the website project by MSBuild command line:
msbuild.exe TestWebsite.sln /t:Rebuild
After this command complete, the dll files are copy to the bin folder.
So build and package restore to work it looks like you need to keep the .dll.refresh files in the bin folder. You can remove the other binaries from your version control system.
Note: If you want to get those .dll.refresh back, you can use the command line in the Package Manager Console:
update-package -reinstall
Hope this helps.
Related
I have a strange behavior with msbuild on my Azure Pipeline.
I'm using Azure Pipeline with Self-hosted Windows agents.
Configuration:
My Visual Studio .sln contains two C# projects:
WebService (Rest API)
Business layer
In addition, the Business layer has dependencies on 2 others projects.
Kernel.DataModel
Kernel.DataAccess
The Kernel.DataAcess layer is using the NuGet package "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types" (14.0.314.76)
The Reference "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types" in the project Kernel.DataAccess has "Copy Local = True". Therefore the DLL file should be copied in the output (release) directory.
The problem:
When I run the Azure Build pipeline, the file "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll" is not copied in the "_PublishedWebsites" directory.
To convince myself, I decided to run the same Pipeline on another build machine by changing the Agent Pool. At my surprise the DLL was present in the "_PublishedWebsites" on the second build machine.
Furthermore, I decided to manually run the msbuild command on my local computer and the the DLL was also present in the "_PublishedWebsites...\bin" on my local machine.
Log files:
I also looked at log files on the Build machines and on my local computer.
First build machine -> The DLL file is simply not copied !
Second build machine -> The DLL file is copied from this location.
Copying file from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\SDK\Assemblies\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll" to "F:\AgentLatestBuild\A1\_work\28\b\_PublishedWebsites\ApiProject\bin\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll".
Local machine ->
_CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal:
Copying file from "C:\TFS\Repos\Src\Project\**packages**\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.14.0.314.76\lib\net40\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll" to "E:\tfs\build\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll".
Copying file from "E:\tfs\build\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll" to "E:\tfs\build\_PublishedWebsites\ApiProject\bin\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll".
As you can see:
On the second build machine, msbuild is not using the NuGet packages folder but it's using "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\SDK\Assemblies\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll"
On my local machine, the DLL is copied from the NuGet packages folder.
Here are my questions:
How msbuild.exe is selecting the source/location of the DLL ?
Is there a way to force msbuild to first use the NuGet packages instead of any others folders ?
I think msbuild should first look in the NuGet packages folder and if the DLL is not found, then it should try to find it from somewhere else. (C:\Program Files (x86), GAC, etc..)
Finally, do you have any idea why the "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll" is not copied at all on the first build machine. The DLL is present in at least three locations. (ie: NuGet packages folder, C:\Program files\ and it is also in the GAC).
It looks like msbuild is lost in the dependency tracking and can't find the file or it won't copy it for some other reasons.
Thanks for your help.
Is it possible that your *.csproj is targetting the wrong HintPath?
Could you check if you have something like this:
<Reference Include="Microsoft.SqlServer.Types">
<HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.YOURVERSION\lib\net40\Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
thanks
I'm trying to build my solution and package up the web app into a web deploy (.zip) package to be deployed.
I've added the Visual Studio Build step with the following MSBuild Arguments:
/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\"
And I've set up the Copy and Publish Build Artifacts step to copy all .zip files to the drop folder.
The build completes successfully but nothing is copied to the drop folder because there are no .zip packages that get created.
So when I look on the TFS server, the only thing in the 'a' folder is an empty 'drop' folder. And in the 's' folder is the solution directory with a PrecompiledWeb folder in it. Not sure what that is but it doesn't look like the deployment package (and it's not a .zip).
Any ideas?
I have tried the same on VS2015 MVC web application using VSTS and TFS 2015.2.1 both. I had to do a slight change to the Build arguments in Visual Studio build. That is removing the trailing "\" in /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\".
Here is the argument I passed to Visual studio build step
/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)"
Then I used Copy and Published Build Artifacts (Deprecated in VSTS you should use Copy task and Publish task instead of this task) as shown below
This gives me output as below.
First suggest you manually remote in the build agent and build the project through MSBuild command line with arguments to see if the project builds properly.
This will narrow down the issue is related to the environment on your build agent or your build definition.
You should directly use /p:PackageLocation=$(build.stagingDirectory
Besides since you have multiple assemblies that are referenced in the web app. Please also double check dependencies that are building in the correct order or referenced correctly.
Make sure the ASP.NET development workload of Visual Studio is installed.
If DeployOnBuild is having no effect, you may need to install the ASP.NET Development "workload" with the VS setup tool.
There are specific .targets files that, if they don't exist, cause these parameters to be silently ignored. Installing this adds those .targets and the parameters become active, allowing the .zip to be created.
For me (VS 2017) the relevant target file (or one of them, anyway) that was missing but is needed is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets
If it is missing, you'll need to install as above, and if it is there, then you have a different problem. ;)
When VS2017 was used to create a stateful solution, producing the standard boilerplate code, the resulting two projects have two different MSBuild versions.
The application uses MSBuild version 1.5.0.
The service uses MSBuild version 1.6.0 (the current "latest").
If I run the solution this way, it runs fine on my local Service Fabric cluster.
But when after I use NuGet to update the application's MSBuild to 1.6.0 (so both application and server projects use the same), the following errors occur.
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error The OutputPath property is not set for project 'gt_strd5.sfproj'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='Debug' P follow a project-to-project reference to this project, this project has belatform='x64'. This error may also appear if some other project is trying toen unloaded or is not included in the solution, and the referencing project does not build using the same or an equivalent Configuration or Platform. gt_strd5 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets 737
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error MSB4057 The target "CreateManifestResourceNames" does not exist in the project. gt_strd5 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets 2630
I found that after the change, some references in the application's project file continued to reference MSBuild 1.5.0. In my case, the gt_strd5.sfproj file contained four references which needed to be updated from 1.5.0 to 1.6.0. See the snippets from the XML below.
Import Project="..\packages\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.**MSBuild.1.5.0**\build\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.Application.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.**MSBuild.1.5.0**\build\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.Application.props')"
.....
Import Project="..\packages\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.**MSBuild.1.5.0**\build\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.Application.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.**MSBuild.1.5.0**\build\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Azure.Fabric.Application.targets')"
To verify this, I went back a couple times and was able to reproduce both the issue and this solution.
Hope it saves someone else some time.
Best Regards
I was getting this error into PCF control.
Run Developer Command Prompt VS2017/ VS2019
a) Remove white space from your folder like Test%20-%20PCFs (source control generated name) should be TestPCFs
b) Go to pcf project folder from cmd line & run msbuild /t:restore
b) Go to cds project folder from cmd line & run msbuild /t:restore
c) On cds project folder, run msbuild
d) For release deployment run msbuild /p:configuration=Release
For other types of projects
a) Remove white space from your folder name
b) run msbuild /t:restore
c) run msbuild
When I use the option Publish... selecting as target the file system in Visual Studio 2015 it compiles the code, do the XML transformation in the Web.config files and copy the files to the folder I specified.
It does not copy any *.cs file as expected since it is compiled.
Something that I don't understand is why it publishes the Nuget Config file (packages.config), after all, the files needed are already in the bin folder.
I found this question that says how to avoid but not the reason they decided this file would be usable on the server.
Can I stop VS from publishing packages.config?
Anyone know why packages.config end up in the publish folder?
I have a Visual Studio solution that contains 16 C# projects. I also have a separate build.proj file which contains three <Target>s:
Build, which contains an <MSBuild> reference to the *.sln
Package, which contains the <MakeDir> and <CopyCommands> to copy the built DLL/EXE files along with various data files to a $(StagePath) directory.
Deploy, that copies files from the stage path to a deploy path.
I was able to run the command xbuild /t:Deploy build.proj to build the *.sln and copy its files to the appropriate location, until recently when IT decided to move my Documents folder onto a network drive.
Now, whenever I try to run this xbuild command, I get several errors like the one below. (The reference is to one of the dependencies within the same solution.)
error CS0234: The type or namespace name `Util' does not exist in the namespace `Contoso'. Are you missing an assembly reference?
But whenever I do a “Build All” on the same *.sln from Xamarin Studio, I get a successful build with 0 errors and 0 warnings. So why can't xbuild find these assembly references if Xamarin Studio can?