In my C++ project Visual Studio (2017) fails to detect changes in a property value when I trigger a "build" (e.g. via F5 requesting a debugger start).
I want to be able to use the property pages dialog in visual studio to specify a path variable to another library.
The simplified versions are here. First I use a .targets file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<PropertyPageSchema Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\overrideSettings.xml" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(myDir)' == ''">
<__my_IncludeDir>somewhere\include\</__my_IncludeDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(myDir)' != ''">
<__my_IncludeDir>somewhere_else\include\</__my_IncludeDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemDefinitionGroup>
<ClCompile>
<AdditionalIncludeDirectories>$(__my_IncludeDir);%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
</ClCompile>
<ResourceCompile>
<AdditionalIncludeDirectories>$(__my_IncludeDir);%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
</ResourceCompile>
</ItemDefinitionGroup>
</Project>
And an .xml file for the settings:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ProjectSchemaDefinitions xmlns="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Build.Framework.XamlTypes;assembly=Microsoft.Build.Framework">
<Rule Name="ProjectSettings_NugetDevOverride" PageTemplate="tool" DisplayName="Nuget Development Override" SwitchPrefix="/" Order="1">
<Rule.Categories>
<Category Name="myTest" DisplayName="myTest" />
</Rule.Categories>
<Rule.DataSource>
<DataSource Persistence="UserFile" ItemType="" />
</Rule.DataSource>
<StringProperty Name="myDir" Category="myTest" />
</Rule>
</ProjectSchemaDefinitions>
Now, this does work to some extent.
However, Visual Studio fails to correctly detect changes in the property variable defined on the property page.
I build the project -> 1 succeeded
I build the project again (F5) -> 1 up-to-date
I change the variable myDir using the property page; making it empty or setting a value, so that the other property group in the .targets file is triggered.
I build the project again (F5) -> 1 up-to-date This is wrong!
I re-build the project -> 1 succeeded with correctly used new property value.
Where is the problem in my setup? Can I explicitly add myDir as property to be checked before the build is marked as up-to-date?
I found one workaround: DisableFastUpToDateCheck
https://stackoverflow.com/a/36004494/552373
But this is horrible, since my real project is very large and the fast-up-to-date-check really helps.
Update 20171128:
I now also tried the following:
I build the project -> 1 succeeded
I build the project again (F5) -> 1 up-to-date
I change the variable myDir using the property page; making it empty or setting a value, so that the other property group in the .targets file is triggered.
I close Visual Studio and open it again. No file-save dialog popped up.
I build the project again (F5) -> 1 up-to-date This is wrong!
The fact, that even this does not work, points at a real problem with the FastUpToDateCheck in Visual Studio.
Does anyone have a further idea?
I just updated to Visual Studio 2017 v15.3 and Core 2.0 SDK.
I'm working with Igans Sakalauskas' Net Core Knockout project, it was built with Core 1.1 in VS 2017.
https://ignas.me/tech/net-core-knockoutjs-web-application/
I've left EnableDefaultContentItemsto the default of true and removed the Content Include statements from the .csproj file in the WebApplication1.Web project.
He is using nlog and there is a nlog.config in the root of the project. The project builds successfully but throws a file not found error when ran. It is looking for the nlog.config in the WebApplication1.Web\bin\Debug\netcoreapp1.1 folder. If I manually copy the file the project runs and all the tests pass.
What I cannot get to work is for VS to copy the nlog.config when the project builds.
If I add
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="nlog.*" />
</ItemGroup>
to the .csproj I get the Duplicate 'Content' items ... The duplicate items were: 'nlog.config' error. https://aka.ms/sdkimplicititems
If I comment out the Contnet Include and set the EnableDefaultContentItems to false
<PropertyGroup>
<EnableDefaultCompileItems>false</EnableDefaultCompileItems>
</PropertyGroup>
I get a
Suppression State Error CS5001 Program does not contain a static 'Main' method suitable for an entry point
If I then restore the `Content Inculde' statements it gives this error:
Duplicate 'Content' items ... The duplicate items were: 'list of files' error
The Default Content Items is working with .js and .cs files in the wwwroot sub-folders.
If VS throws the Duplicate Content error when I Content Include an item why does it not copy the file without the Content Include?
In VS 2017 15.3 how do you configure the copying of a file nlog.config from the project's root to a bin sub-directory?
This is nothing to do with duplicate content items.
Revert to the recommended approach to handling duplicate content errors in Visual Studio 2017; this is what you started with:
I've left EnableDefaultContentItems to the default of true and removed
the Content Include statements from the .csproj file in the
WebApplication1.Web project.
Now add this to your .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Update="nlog.config">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
This tells Visual Studio to update the existing content rule (the automatically generated one) to make it copy the file into the output directory on build.
I'm tyring to refactor my code using include-what-you-use, but I need to figure out exactly which directories VS is looking in.
How do I get a listing of all include paths visible to files in my project?
If I add an incorrect include, something like "#include " I get the listing I want, but I can't copy and paste the damn thing! (and OCR doesn't seem to work).
How do I get this list?
Copy/pasting from the dialog is ok if you want to do this once manually but doesn't scale well. Since you tagged this msbuild, here's a solution using it. Create a file names showincludes.targets and paste this msbuild code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="ShowIncludes">
<Message Text="$(Include);%(ClCompile.AdditionalIncludeDirectories)"/>
</Target>
</Project>
Now to get the list of includes for any project file use
msbuild \path\to\vcxproj /p:ForceImportAfterCppTargets=\path\to\showincludes.targets /t:ShowIncludes
This will import said file into the project give, so it has access to all properties, and print out the value of the INCLUDE environment variable which is by default used by the compiler, and also the value of AdditionalIncludeDirectories which is passed to the compiler by msbuild.
There is Copy to Output Directory property for files in C# projects. But in VC++ projects it is absent. I know, that I can use Build events in VC++ and write there something like
xcopy /y /d %(FullPath) $(OutDir)
Is there a way to avoid the use of CMD (and other scripting methods)? Can msbuild do something to help in this case?
Can MSBuild do something to help in this case?
Using MSVC 2012, this worked for me:
Assumed you have a file "Data/ThisIsData.txt" in your c++ Project.
Unload the project (right click --> Unload Project).
Edit project XML (right click --> Edit .vcxproj)
Now you see the projects MSBuild file as XML in your editor.
Find "ThisIsData.txt". It should look something like:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="Data\ThisIsData.txt" />
...
</ItemGroup>
Now add an other item group like this:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="Data\ThisIsData.txt">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
...
</ItemGroup>
Reload the project and build.
Your file "ThisIsData.txt" should get copied to $(OutDir)\Data\ThisIsData.txt.
Why duplicating the ItemGroup?
Well if you simply change the None include to a content include, the IDE does not seem to like it any more, and will not display it. So to keep a quick edit option for my data files, I decided to keep the duplicated entries.
In VS 2015 it is possible to give C projects the functionality that is in C#.
(Idea from building off of jochen's answer.)
Instead of adding another ItemGroup, modify the given itemgroup adding a CopyTo element. I.E, using his example, simply enhance the original entry to:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="Data\ThisIsData.txt" />
<DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
...
</ItemGroup>
No other ItemGroup required. By adding the CopyTo element, you add an "Included In Project" property.
In Visual Studio 2017 you can do this in the IDE. I am not sure about earlier versions.
Simply add the file as an included project file so it shows in the Solution Explorer. Then right click on the file and select the Properties menu.
Change the Content to "Yes" and change the Item Type to "Copy file"
If you look at the changes it made to the project file you can see it added this:
<ItemGroup>
<CopyFileToFolders Include="Filename.txt">
<DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
<FileType>Document</FileType>
</CopyFileToFolders>
</ItemGroup>
It depends on what version of Visual Studio you are using. Format of VC++ project file in Visual Studio 2008 is not MSBuild and so using xcopy in PostBuildStep is a good choice.
VC++ project in Visual Studio 2010 has MSBuild format. Thus, there is functionality of MSBuild Copy task.
Below is a sample:
<Copy
SourceFiles="%(FullPath)"
DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)"
/>
If the destination directory does not exist, it is created automatically
An MSDN Copy task reference is here
Following henri-socha's answer about VS2015 (and probably VS2013 and VS2012, or anything using MSBuild style projects), the ItemGroup item type is important.
Specifically <Text> items do not seem to be copied, whereas <Content> items do.
So, for a project directory Data containing a text file ThisIsData.txt, this will create a subdirectory Data under the $(OutDir) directory and copy the file ThisIsData.txt from the project into it if it's newer:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="Data\ThisIsData.txt">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
This won't, although it is what the Visual Studio IDE will insert if you add the text file to your project, and set the Content property to True.
<ItemGroup>
<Text Include="Data\ThisIsData.txt">
<DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
</Text>
</ItemGroup>
So in other words you need to add the file via the IDE to make it realise the file is included in the project (which adds <Text> tag ItemGroup), and then open the project in a text editor and add the <Content> tag ItemGroup to get it to do what you want.
I'm not sure what the <DeploymentContent> tag actually does. It may be a remnant since the only MSDN reference I could find considers it archived: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa712517.aspx
In visual studio 2019 after setting the file as "Include in project" you can edit the properties an select as Item Type "Copy file" (as shown in https://i.stack.imgur.com/vac2b.png)
This avoids the manual vcxproj file edition.
You can specify copying in the project file as Jeff G answered in another question:
In the *.vcxproj file, change:
<Text Include="Filename.txt" />
to:
<Content Include="Filename.txt">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
Then in the *.vcxproj.filters file, change:
<Text Include="Filename.txt">
<Filter>Resource Files</Filter>
</Text>
to:
<Content Include="Filename.txt">
<Filter>Resource Files</Filter>
</Content>
where the <Text ...> tag is for specified text files (it'll be <Image ...> for image files etc.)
If it's a COM dll, you can add it to the root of your project, mark it as 'Content' and set copy to output directory to 'Always'. I had to do this for signature capture COM assembly.
I've read about the use of "Custom.Before.Microsoft.Common.targets" and "Custom.After.Microsoft.Common.targets" in order to execute a custom target before/after every project build and I would like to use this technique in order to change version info while building on our TeamCity build server.
The problem is that although it works for C# projects, it doesn't seem to work for native C++ projects.
After some digging around in the Microsoft.Cpp.targets file I found out that for native C++ projects this seems to be implemented through setting $(ForceImportBeforeCppTargets) and $(ForceImportAfterCppTargets).
I can't seem to find a single piece of information on the web about this technique for native C++ apps though, so I'm asking if I'm looking in the right direction or not.
Any help is appreciated.
For VC++ projects it is a bit different. You define a file to be imported either at the beginning or at the end of the project. To use this approach you need to define values for the properties ForceImportBeforeCppTargets or ForceImportAfterCppTargets. For example if you want a file to be included at the beginning of the project you can pass in the value at the command line. For example I just created a dummy VC++ project named CppTets01. Then I created the two sample files below.
Before.proj
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CustomTargetInBefore" AfterTargets="Build">
<Message Text="From CustomTargetInBefore" Importance="high"/>
</Target>
</Project>
After.proj
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CustomTargetInAfter" AfterTargets="Build">
<Message Text="From CustomTargetInAfter" Importance="high"/>
</Target>
</Project>
Then I executed the following command:
msbuild CppTest01.vcxproj
/p:ForceImportBeforeCppTargets="C:\Temp\_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01\Before.proj";
ForceImportAfterCppTargets="C:\Temp\_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01\After.proj"
The result was
C:\Temp_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01>msbuild CppTest01.vcxproj /p:ForceImportBeforeCppTargets="C:\Temp_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\C
ppTest01\Before.proj";ForceImportAfterCppTargets="C:\Temp_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01\After.proj"
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.1]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Build started 10/18/2010 8:32:55 AM.
Project "C:\Temp\_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01\CppTest01.vcxproj" on node 1 (default targets).
InitializeBuildStatus:
Creating "Debug\CppTest01.unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
ClCompile:
All outputs are up-to-date.
All outputs are up-to-date.
ManifestResourceCompile:
All outputs are up-to-date.
Link:
All outputs are up-to-date.
Manifest:
All outputs are up-to-date.
FinalizeBuildStatus:
Deleting file "Debug\CppTest01.unsuccessfulbuild".
Touching "Debug\CppTest01.lastbuildstate".
CustomTargetInBefore:
From CustomTargetInBefore
CustomTargetInAfter:
From CustomTargetInAfter
Done Building Project "C:\Temp\_NET\ThrowAway\CppTest01\CppTest01\CppTest01.vcxproj" (default targets).
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.21
As you can see from the output the targets were successfully injected into the build process. If you want to relate this back to Custom.Before.Microsoft.Common.targets and Custom.Before.Microsoft.Common.targets then you should know that the technique used there is a bit different. Specifically if you create those files they are automatically imported into every C#/VB.NET project. In this case you have to set this property. You really have two options here:
You can set this property as an environment variable
You can use another technique, ImportBefore & ImportAfter which is specific to VC++
For #1 let me explain a bit. In MSBuild when you access a property with the syntax $(PropName) then if a property with the name PropName doesn't exist MSBuild will look up in the environment variables to see if such a value exists, if it does then that value is returned. So if you have a build server in which you want to include a file for each VC++ build, then just create those properties as environment variables. Now for the other technique.
ImportBefore/ImportAfter
In VC++ a new concept is introduced. In Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.targets you can see the declaration at the top of the .targets file.
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\Win32\ImportBefore\*.targets"
Condition="Exists('$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\Win32\ImportBefore')" />
Then there is one towards the bottom
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\Win32\ImportAfter\*.targets"
Condition="Exists('$(VCTargetsPath)\Platforms\Win32\ImportAfter')" />
A similar import declaration exists for the other target platforms as well. Take a look at the files at %ProgramFiles32%\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Platforms\ for the specific names.
With this technique if you want a file to be imported then simply create a file that ends with .targets and place it into the appropriate folder. The advantage of this is that it will be imported into every VC++ build for that platform, and that you can create many different files. The drawback is that you have to place them in those specific folders. That's the main difference between both techniques. With this first technique you can specify the file location via property and its not automatically included for every build, but for the second approach it is but you cannot change the location
You can also add project content into one of *.props files from directory %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\
It make same effect.