I'd like to copy a file and include the file in the web project and would like to do this as a part of the Pre/Post build events.
My understanding is that these events support DOS commands and I can use xcopy for copying a file, but I am not sure how I would update the csproj file to include the file in the project.
Do you need the file to be in the output directory or actually be part of the .csproj file ?
If you really want to update the csproj file then try customising the AfterBuild target in the csproj file of the startup project in your solution. All csproj files are msbuild files and you can use the full power or msbuild including callling any task. Right click on the project in the solution explorer, select unload project and then edit project. Then customise the AfterBuild target to change the particular csproj file you want. Use built in tasks or the excellent extension pack for changing the file. Finally reload the project.
Related
In a C# csproj project, AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath and AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath prevent msbuild from creating subfolders for target framework and runtime in the build output directory. However, the configuration name is still appended.
Is there a configuration option to prevent a separate subfolder for each configuration?
So I figured out a solution to this. When editing the project settings in Visual Studio, it modifies the <BaseOutputPath> element in the XML project file. Simply change the element name to <OutputPath> instead, and it won't append the configuration name (and as you said, add <AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath> and <AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>false</AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath> to disable appending target framework and runtime identifier).
As an example, I have the following in a <PropertyGroup> in a C# project:
<OutputPath>$(SolutionDir)Build\$(Configuration)\Plugins</OutputPath>
<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
<AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>false</AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>
For a debug build, this will output the build files to <SolutionDir>\Build\Debug\Plugins.
I have a C# Visual Studio solution with about 15 projects. When I build the solution I want all DLL and EXE files for each project to go to a common folder (called Deploy).
The way I was thinking about doing it was, for each project's Post-build Event Command Line section put the following commands:
IF NOT EXIST $(SolutionDir)Deploy (
'If directory does not exist, create it
MKDIR $(SolutionDir)Deploy
) ELSE (
'Delete directory to make sure it's "clean"
RMDIR /F /S /Q $(SolutionDir)Deploy
MKDIR $(SolutionDir)Deploy
)
'Copy executable and required DLLs to Deploy directory
COPY /Y $(TargetPath) $(SolutionDir)Deploy
COPY /Y $(TargetDir)*.dll $(SolutionDir)Deploy
The problem with doing it this way, however, is I have 15 projects and would have put this in each individual project's post build event section and also, every time I add a new project, I would have to remember to do the same for it.
I checked the solution file properties and did not see a way to set a solution-wide post build event to copy all the files so I did a few Google searches.
One page said to use a C++ Makefile project. I added this type of project to my solution and clicked on the project properties page and found that there is a section under Configuration Properties->NMake with the following:
Build Command Line
Rebuild All Command Line
Clean Command Line
Using the Makefile project's Command Line option poses a similar problem to above. Many different commands to copy each of my 15 project's output files such as:
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project1\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project2\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
...
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project15\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
There is another apparent problem with doing it this way. As you can see I took advantage of the $(SolutionDir) and $(ConfigurationName) macros but I had to hard-code each project name.
I didn't see any macros like $(AllProjects), $(AllProjectDirs), etc.
Also, it appears that command line commands for Makefile projects are for building, not post-build events, so I gave up on this idea altogether.
I then tried using a Visual Studio Installer project. After adding the project to my solution I right-clicked the project and saw that there was an Add->Project Output... option. This brought up a dialog allowing me to add one of my other project's Primary Output. I repeated this for each of my other projects and rebuilt.
What resulted was an .MSI file in the output folder. I then opened installer project properties and changed the Package files option to As loose uncompressed files and rebuilt. The output folder now contained all my project's EXE and DLL files!
Most people would be satisfied at this point and move on but I am the kind of person who likes to find the best way to do things.
There was one thing I didn't like about using the installer project option, the fact that, besides copying the files from all my projects, it also created an MSI file (which I don't need) and I didn't see any option tell it not to create one.
Can anyone recommend a another/better way to accomplish my goal of copying all project output files to a single folder?
Thank you.
P.S. I was thinking I could just make a batch file to search and copy all the EXE and DLL files to the Deploy folder but I would have to run the batch file outside of the Visual Studio IDE and also hard-code the configuration folder (Debug or Deploy).
Can't you just change the Output Directory of the C++ projects? See How to: Change the Build Output Directory.
On the menu bar, choose Project, Properties.
Expand the Configuration Properties node, and choose General.
Change the Output Directory value to the new output directory.
If you want both options, you can also create multiple configurations for your VS projects and solutions, similar to the standard "Debug" and "Release" ones. Create a new configuration from one of the existing ones, then change the output directory and save. Now you can just switch the configuration at the solution level to build into another directory. See this link for detailed steps:
How to: Create and Edit Configurations
I have some custom made XML files and a read me file that I've included in my project.
How do I make it so that these files are copied to my debug/release folders automatically when I build my project? I've tried setting the Copy to Output Directory property to "Copy Always" but this doesn't seem to do the trick.
I'm using VS2010
I've found the answer. The build action needs to be set to Content if you want to just directly copy the file to the output folder.
I am debugging a bug in my build process that happens occasionally but I can't directly reproduce it. I'm using msbuild with teamcity.
I have a dependency hierarchy like this:
Some.Interop.dll
Dependency-> SharedDllABC.dll
SomeService.exe
Depenendcy-> Some.Interop
Usually the final service exectuable gets in its release directory:
Some.Interop
SharedDllABC.Dll
ServiceExectuable.exe
However I can see in our msbuild logs that sometimes the tertiary dependency gets deleted during an Incremental Clean after everything is built resulting in:
Some.Interop
ServiceExectuable.exe
You can see it here in the msbuild log:
[src\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] _TimeStampAfterCompile
[12:32:43]: [src\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] Compile
// some other targets
[12:32:43]: [src\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal
[12:32:43]: [_CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal] Copy
[12:32:43]: [Copy] Copying file from "C:Projects\trunk\src\Some.Interop\bin\Release\Some.Interop.dll" to "bin\Release\Some.Interop.dll".
// some other targets
[src\Project\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] IncrementalClean
[18:54:42]: [IncrementalClean] Delete
[18:54:42]: [Delete] Deleting file "C:\Projects\trunk\src\Project\SomeService\bin\Release\SharedDllABC.dll".
[18:54:42]: [Delete] Deleting file "C:\Projects\trunk\src\Project\SomeServiceService\bin\Release\SharedDllABC.pdb".
[18:54:42]: [src\Project\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] CoreBuild
[18:54:42]: [src\Project\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] AfterBuild
[18:54:42]: [src\Project\SomeService\SomeService.csproj] Build
This is my direct msbuild output, I just changed the project names/dll names to match my example. By the time this Incremental Clean has occurred the SomeService.csproj has already been built. You can see that its not getting copied. However in other msbuild logs it does properly get copied and then the incremental clean doesn't delete it.
I think incrementeal clean from this post is supposed to clean dll's that were created from previous builds, but that doesn't explain how this dll didn't get built when most of the time it does. In visual studio this always works as well.
I guess I just want to know what exactly is Incremental clean, what causes it to kick in, and maybe what things I should look for when debugging a situation like this (assembly versions, timestamps, etc?)
Try the following:
Add:
<Target Name="IncrementalClean" />
to a .targets file that's included in all projects.
From --> https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/issues/1054
#Kebabbi recommends a good fix by editing a csproj file. As of MSBuild 15, there is a simple way to make this apply to all CSPROJ files, instead of editing each csproj file.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-your-build?view=vs-2017
Directory.Build.props and Directory.Build.targets
Prior to MSBuild version 15, if you wanted to provide a new, custom property to projects in your solution, you had to manually add a reference to that property to every project file in the solution. Or, you had to define the property in a .props file and then explicitly import the .props file in every project in the solution, among other things.
However, now you can add a new property to every project in one step by defining it in a single file called Directory.Build.props in the root folder that contains your source. When MSBuild runs, Microsoft.Common.props searches your directory structure for the Directory.Build.props file (and Microsoft.Common.targets looks for Directory.Build.targets). If it finds one, it imports the property. Directory.Build.props is a user-defined file that provides customizations to projects under a directory.
Create a file Directory.Build.props, and place it adjacent to the SLN file.
<Project>
<Target
Name="ForceAssignProjectConfigurationBeforeSplitProjectReferencesByFileExistence_KLUDGE"
BeforeTargets="_SplitProjectReferencesByFileExistence"
DependsOnTargets="AssignProjectConfiguration" />
</Project>
This could be caused by a bug in MsBuild: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/issues/1054.
A fix is proposed in the comments: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/issues/1054#issuecomment-406438561
When MsBuild determines which items to copy from referenced projects, it should do this recursively but does not properly do this.
As a workaround the following can be added to each csproj.
<Target
Name="ForceAssignProjectConfigurationBeforeSplitProjectReferencesByFileExistence_KLUDGE"
BeforeTargets="_SplitProjectReferencesByFileExistence"
DependsOnTargets="AssignProjectConfiguration"
/>
I just spent a few days trying to figure this out with a similar pattern. In our case it was nuget files that were being removed from the output folder.
NugetPackage (that drops files in x86/x64 subfolders in output folder)
LibraryA.dll
Dependency-> NugetPackage
LibraryB.dll
Dependency-> LibraryA.dll
In our case, we have a number of solution files that are built as part of an msbuild script in a certain order.
The problem was that LibraryB.csproj was included in two solution files.
Solution1 builds and output files are all present.
Solution2 builds and sees that LibraryB.dll is present and up to date, so for some reason triggers the IncrementalClean that removes the NugetPackage files from the output folder.
Once I removed the LibraryB.csproj from solution 2, the problem is solved and the files are present in the output folder.
How can I make a project file (VS 2008) that just has some data files in and has no built output?
I can make an empty project and add my data files to it (which get copied to the output folder
), but it produces an EmptyProject.dll after I do a build. I want just my data files in the output directory and not some empty DLL or EXE.
I want the data files to be the only thing in this project as the project will be shared in a couple of solutions.
Our application is C#. All of our normal code projects are C#.
The data files are schemas (XSD). I want these schemas to be in the output folder, but I don't want them included with an existing project. I would like a project named "Schemas" that has nothing in except the XSD files and does nothing except copy the XSD files to the output folder. I would like this in a project file so that the same schemas project can be referenced in multiple solutions.
I don't know of a way to suppress the creation of the .dll file. BUT... here's an easy workaround. In the project properties, Build Events tab, write a Post-build event command line that will delete the file. Something like:
del path\filename.dll
Expanding on Scott's answer:
Create a new project of type Empty project
In Properties->Application, change Output type to Class Library
In Properties->Build->Advanced, change Debug Info to None
In Properties->Build Events, set the Post-build event command line to del $(TargetPath)
That way, the project creates only a DLL, which gets deleted. At the same time, the "copy to output directory" settings on your data files is respected.
Possibly another way is editing the csproj file by replacing this:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
with this:
<Target Name="Build" />
<Target Name="Rebuild" />
Then builds don't create anything. It worked for me.
Same general idea should work for any xxproj file. Just replace the <Import Project...> tags with the <Target...> tags.
I'd be interested in knowing if this causes any issues or doesn't work for anyone.
What do you need a project for if you're not building it?
You can use solution folders to "store" files...
Why not just disable building this project for all configurations (use the Configuration Manager) - that way it won't build.
Great stuff. Expanding on Scott > Daniel's answer:
Safe to remove all References and Properties (AssemblyInfo.cs)
If it is a node/grunt/gulp project then you can invoke it in your Build Events > *Post-build event command line * eg: gulp build or gulp clean
Perhaps you can add removal or obj and bin output folders to your node/grunt/gulp clean scripts mitigating the need for del $(TargetPath)