I'm sure there is something small that I'm missing. Here's the problem:
I have a solution that has multiple projects which after each build will be zipped. Here is an example of the zip creation in one project (they are pretty much identical in others):
<ItemGroup>
<CopySourceFiles Include="$(OutDir)\**\*.*" Exclude="$(OutDir)\**\*.pdb;$(OutDir)\*.mdf;$(OutDir)\*.ldf;$(OutDir)\*.vshost.*" />
</ItemGroup>
...
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
<MakeDir Directories="$(OutDir)\..\zip_working" />
<!-- first copy the source files specified in the CorySourceFiles ItemGroup above. -->
<Copy SourceFiles="#(CopySourceFiles)" DestinationFiles="#(CopySourceFiles->'$(OutDir)\..\zip_working\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
<!-- Perform the zip by calling the UsingTask. Make sure the DestinationFiles above and the SourceDirectory below are pointing to the same place -->
<Zip SourceDirectory="$(OutDir)\..\zip_working" OutputFilename="$(OutDir)\..\zip\$(ProjectName).zip" />
<!-- Clean up. -->
<RemoveDir Directories="$(OutDir)\..\zip_working" />
</Target>
There is a final project which has links to the zipped files that it combines into a package. All appears normal, but apparently only when the bin and zip_working folders already exist. I.e. if I clean the solution, delete the bin folders and then rebuild, the final zip that is created in the "zip" folder for each project is empty...
And then the zip files have content only after I build again.
So I'm guessing that during the build process, the AfterBuild target is running before the build output files exist. Does that sound right? I trigger the builds purely from within Visual Studio.
Regardless, how can I ensure that I can run a task on build output files only after they've been created?
Applies to Visual Studio 2013 Update 5 / MSBuild 12.0
If you delete everything in OutDir and then build the project, a top-level (as in, not inside a target) ItemGroup is evaluated before the build even starts. Some info can be found here for example. In other words, before a build and with an empty OutDir $(OutDir)\**\*.* evaluates to nothing and your CopySourceFiles item is empty.
The solution is simply to move the ItemGroup inside of the AfterBuild target. It will then be evaluated after the build and hence gets a proper view on the current files in outDir.
Related
VS 2017 sets LastActiveSolutionConfig for a web application on its project load, thus triggering subsequent build of that project, because:
The property is set in the respective .csproj.user file, which is created, if needed.
The .csproj.user file is part of project dependencies
So by creating it, VS causes the project to be built the next time.
Imagine building it all on the command line with msbuild after cleaning up the workspace, then switching back to VS and hitting the build button. And it is building again!
So, there are these stupid auto generated CS files related to workflows, that are generated only by VS, not msbuild (TemporaryGeneratedFile_036C0B5B-1481-4323-8D20-8F5ADCB23D92.cs and friends) - our msbuild generates them on purpose to satisfy VS. Check.
Next we ensure all the Copy to Output Directory files use PreserveNewest - check.
I already forgot what else we had to do to make sure VS does not rebuild code redundantly when switching from msbuild to IDE. Now this one, which is new.
How can I prevent VS 2017 from adding this property? Is it absolutely necessary to have it?
In the mean-time, I will modify the .csproj files by adding it and see if it helps. Nobody builds Release locally at our place and it is always AnyCPU platform, so I do not care about other configurations, except Debug|AnyCPU.
This is what I would do:
Set the build verbosity to Diagnostic.
Build and look for where the msbuild file is located that generates this file:
TemporaryGeneratedFile_036C0B5B-1481-4323-8D20-8F5ADCB23D92.cs
Look for some conditions that you can alter to prevent the file from being
generated.
Set some property to alter the condition and prevent that file from being generated.
My solution is to generate the .csproj.user files if needed with the expected property. Which is incredibly annoying that one has to do it. Here is the build code that can go into your Directory.Build.Targets:
<Target Name="EnsureCSProjUserForWebApplications"
Condition="'$(IsWebApplication)' == True And !Exists('$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user')">
<ItemGroup>
<CSProjUserContent Include="<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<PropertyGroup>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<LastActiveSolutionConfig>Debug|Any CPU</LastActiveSolutionConfig>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="</PropertyGroup>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="</Project>" />
</ItemGroup>
<WriteLinesToFile File="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user" Lines="#(CSProjUserContent)" ContinueOnError="true" />
</Target>
IsWebApplication is computed like this:
<IsWebApplication>$(ProjectTypeGuids.Contains('349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21'))</IsWebApplication>
Finally, the target is part of a larger series of targets that run at the beginning and validate the csproj matches our requirements or ensure certain conditions:
<PropertyGroup>
<EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn>
AssertIISExpress;
AssertNoAssemblyInfo;
AssertDebugSymbols;
AssertLocalApplicationHostFile;
AssertImportsDFVersioning;
EnsureSharedBinLink;
AssertSharedBinOutputPath;
AssertHintPaths;
EnsureCSProjUserForWebApplications
</EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="EnsureXyzProjectSettings"
DependsOnTargets="$(EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn)"
BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild"
Condition="'$(SuppressStrictXyzTargetsChecks)' != true" />
In my project I have a json file I use for configuration that I have git set to ignore. When the repository is first cloned, the configuration file that is part of the project and that is copied to the output directory doesn't exist. I've gotten this to work using tasks in the 'BeforeBuild' target in the project that will copy the sample file to the actual config file if it doesn't exist.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<MySourceFiles Include="Configuration.sample.json" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<MyDestinationFiles Include="Configuration.json" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Importance="high" Condition="!Exists('#(MyDestinationFiles)')"
Text="Copying #(MySourceFiles) to #(MyDestinationFiles)" />
<Copy Condition="!Exists('#(MyDestinationFiles)')"
SourceFiles="#(MySourceFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(MyDestinationFiles)" />
</Target>
So if I build the project, then delete the configuration file and do a build, nothing happens because no changes have been made that would change the outputs I think. Is there a way to change the project file so that a build will be flagged as necessary? It shouldn't come up very often and I can always do a 'Clean' or 'Rebuild' manually, but it's nagging at me since I'm just starting to learn MSBuild files.
From the documentation on a Target's Outputs attribute:
The files that form outputs into this target. Multiple files are
separated by semicolons. The timestamps of the files will be compared
with the timestamps of files in Inputs to determine whether the Target
is up to date
So if you add the paths to the outputfiles created by your Beforebuild target to it's Outputs attribute, at the start of every build msbuild will check if those files exist and if not it will start a build because now the project is considered to not be up-to-date anymore. In practice use:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild" Outputs="#(MyDestinationFiles)">
I am seeing some strange behavior with the ItemGroup tag.
My application depends on several DLLs, and I am copying these DLLs as well as the executable to a deploy directory, which is used by NSIS to create an install package from a fresh build. However, I am running into an odd issue with this.
I define my ItemGroup as follows (at the top of the file before I define my build target:
<MyAppFiles Include="$(ProjectRoot)\$(OutputPath)\*.dll;$(ProjectRoot)\$(OutputPath)\MyApp.exe" />
So, this grabs all the DLLs in the directory as well as the binary MyApp.exe. But, if the project has been cleaned (i.e., there are no files in $(OutputPath)). The DLLs are not included in the ItemGroup list of files. Now, if I follow this up with another build, (i.e., there are files from the previous build in $(OutputPath)) the ItemGroup contains all the files I want.
Also, I have checked the output of the build script and the DLLs are copied to $(OutputPath) whether a clean happened or not.
So, my question is, how do I correct my build script such that ItemGroup always contains the DLLs? It seems like the ItemGroup populates with files before the build happens, so if the files aren't there before the build, they aren't included in the list, but if they exist before the build then they are.
For reference, here is the build target that I am using:
<PropertyGroup>
<MyAppRoot>..\MyApp</MyAppRoot>
<MyAppProject>$(MyAppRoot)\MyApp.csproj</MyAppProject>
<PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="BuildProject">
<Message Text="BEFORE: #(ProjectFiles)" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(MyAppProject)" Targets="Build" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="MyAppAssembly"/>
</MSBuild>
<Message Text="AFTER: #(ProjectFiles)" />
</Target>
Presumably your item array is declared at the root level in your project, in XML as a child of the <Project> element. This means that MSBuild will evaluate the membership in the item array when the project file is first loaded. Whether or not the existance of those files changes during execution is irrelevant. If you want to populate the item array at a particular point in your build, you need to change the declaration from a static item array to a dynamic one, which means moving it inside a target, to the exact spot where you want to gather the files, as:
<Target Name="BuildProject">
...before message
...msbuild task
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectFiles Include="$(ProjectRoot)\$(OutputPath)\*.dll" />
<ProjectFiles Include="$(ProjectRoot)\$(OutputPath)\MyApp.exe" />
</ItemGroup>
...after message
</Target>
(excerpted from trick #62 in the book "MSBuild Trickery")
Is there a generic way I can get a post-build event to copy the built assembly, and any .config and any .xml comments files to a folder (usually solution relative) without having to write a post-build event on each project in a solution?
The goal is to have a folder that contains the last successful build of an entire solution.
It would be nice to use the same build solution over multiple solutions too, possibly enabling/ disabling certain projects (so don't copy unit tests etc).
Thanks,
Kieron
You can set common OutputPath to build all projects in Sln in one temp dir and copy required files to the latest build folder. In copy action you can set a filter to copy all dlls without "test" in its name.
msbuild.exe 1.sln /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=AnyCPU;OutputPath=..\latest-temp
There exists more complicated and more flexible solution. You can setup a hook for build process using CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets. See this post for example.
Sample targets file can be like that:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>
$(BuildDependsOn);
PublishToLatest
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetAssembly>$(TargetPath)</TargetAssembly>
<TargetAssemblyPdb>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb</TargetAssemblyPdb>
<TargetAssemblyXml>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).xml</TargetAssemblyXml>
<TargetAssemblyConfig>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).config</TargetAssemblyConfig>
<TargetAssemblyManifest>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).manifest</TargetAssemblyManifest>
<IsTestAssembly>$(TargetName.ToUpper().Contains("TEST"))</IsTestAssembly>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssembly)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssembly)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyPdb)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyPdb)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyXml)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyXml)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyConfig)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyConfig)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyManifest)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyManifest)')" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<Target Name="PublishToLatest"
Condition="Exists('$(LatestDir)') AND '$(IsTestAssembly)' == 'False' AND '#(PublishToLatestFiles)' != ''"
DependsOnTargets="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(PublishToLatestFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(LatestDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
</Project>
In that targets file you can specify any actions you want.
You can place it here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\v4.0\Custom.After.Microsoft.Common.targets" or here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\4.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\PublishToLatest.targets".
And third variant is to add to every project you want to publish import of custom targets. See How to: Use the Same Target in Multiple Project Files
I'm using TeamCity to build and deploy a collection of MVC Applications via msbuild and WebDeploy.
In a step previous to my solution build/deploy, I copy an app_offline.htm to the deploy directory so that I can perform SQL updates and other web/solution management steps including the build.
One of the setting in the WebDeploy is to delete files that aren't included in the project, or not needed to run the site. This deletes my app_offline.htm file each time. While I understand this is kind of the desired result, is there a way to exclude this file from being deleted from the deployment directory upon the deploy?
I've tried adding an ItemGroup with the ExcludeFromPackageFiles option, with no results.
I had a similar problem, wanting to keep minified javascript files in the deployment package even though they're not part of the project.
I added a custom MSBuild target for this, that works for me:
<!-- ====== Package the minify files ===== -->
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
CustomCollectFiles1;
$(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
</CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>
MakeEmptyFolders
</AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles1">
<ItemGroup>
<!-- =====Controls\Javascript folder ==== -->
<_CustomFilesForRootFolder Include=".\Controls\Javascript\*.min.js">
<DestinationRelativePath>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension) </DestinationRelativePath>
</_CustomFilesForRootFolder>
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="%(_CustomFilesForRootFolder.Identity)">
<DestinationRelativePath>.\Controls\Javascript\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
This other question " Custom app_offline.htm file during publish " suggests one possible way for the final result you describe:
I use my own
app_offline.htm_
file in the solution, which gets
published. My deployment script then
renames it (removing the trailing _)
to make it active.
I can then run my db scripts/do
whatever then rename the file bringing
the site back.