Just wondering if someone could help me with some msbuild scripts that I am trying to write. What I would like to do is copy all the files and sub folders from a folder to another folder using msbuild.
{ProjectName}
|----->Source
|----->Tools
|----->Viewer
|-----{about 5 sub dirs}
What I need to be able to do is copy all the files and sub folders from the tools folder into the debug folder for the application. This is the code that I have so far.
<ItemGroup>
<Viewer Include="..\$(ApplicationDirectory)\Tools\viewer\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(Viewer)" DestinationFolder="#(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools')" />
</Target>
The build script runs but doesn't copy any of the files or folders.
Thanks
I was searching help on this too. It took me a while, but here is what I did that worked really well.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<ANTLR Include="..\Data\antlrcs\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ANTLR)" DestinationFolder="$(TargetDir)\%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
This recursively copied the contents of the folder named antlrcs to the $(TargetDir).
I think the problem might be in how you're creating your ItemGroup and calling the Copy task. See if this makes sense:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
<PropertyGroup>
<YourDestinationDirectory>..\SomeDestinationDirectory</YourDestinationDirectory>
<YourSourceDirectory>..\SomeSourceDirectory</YourSourceDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<CreateItem Include="$(YourSourceDirectory)\**\*.*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy)"
DestinationFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy->'$(YourDestinationDirectory)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
</Project>
I'm kinda new to MSBuild but I find the EXEC Task handy for situation like these. I came across the same challenge in my project and this worked for me and was much simpler. Someone please let me know if it's not a good practice.
<Target Name="CopyToDeployFolder" DependsOnTargets="CompileWebSite">
<Exec Command="xcopy.exe $(OutputDirectory) $(DeploymentDirectory) /e" WorkingDirectory="C:\Windows\" />
</Target>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
<PropertyGroup>
<YourDestinationDirectory>..\SomeDestinationDirectory</YourDestinationDirectory>
<YourSourceDirectory>..\SomeSourceDirectory</YourSourceDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<CreateItem Include="$(YourSourceDirectory)\**\*.*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy)"
DestinationFiles="$(YourFilesToCopy)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
</Target>
</Project>
\**\*.* help to get files from all the folder.
RecursiveDir help to put all the file in the respective folder...
This is the example that worked:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<MySourceFiles Include="c:\MySourceTree\**\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyFiles">
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(MySourceFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(MySourceFiles->'c:\MyDestinationTree\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"
/>
</Target>
</Project>
source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3e54c37h.aspx
This is copy task i used in my own project, it was working perfectly for me that copies folder with sub folders to destination successfully:
<ItemGroup >
<MyProjectSource Include="$(OutputRoot)/MySource/**/*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="AfterCopy" AfterTargets="WebPublish">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MyProjectSource)"
OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" DestinationFolder="$(PublishFolder)api/% (RecursiveDir)"/>
In my case i copied a project's publish folder to another destination folder, i think it is similiar with your case.
Did you try to specify concrete destination directory instead of
DestinationFolder="#(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools')" ?
I'm not very proficient with advanced MSBuild syntax, but
#(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools')
looks weird to me. Script looks good, so the problem might be in values of $(ApplicationDirectory) and $(OutputPath)
Here is a blog post that might be useful:
How To: Recursively Copy Files Using the <Copy> Task
Personally I have made use of CopyFolder which is part of the SDC Tasks Library.
http://sdctasks.codeplex.com/
The best way to recursively copy files from one directory to another using MSBuild is using Copy task with SourceFiles and DestinationFiles as parameters. For example - To copy all files from build directory to back up directory will be
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDirectory Condition="'$(BuildDirectory)' == ''">Build</BuildDirectory>
<BackupDirectory Condition="'$(BackupDiretory)' == ''">Backup</BackupDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<AllFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/$(BuildDirectory)/**/*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Backup">
<Exec Command="if not exist $(BackupDirectory) md $(BackupDirectory)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(AllFiles)" DestinationFiles="#(AllFiles->
'$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/$(BackupDirectory)/%(RecursiveDir)/%(Filename)%
(Extension)')" />
</Target>
Now in above Copy command all source directories are traversed and files are copied to destination directory.
If you are working with typical C++ toolchain, another way to go is to add your files into standard CopyFileToFolders list
<ItemGroup>
<CopyFileToFolders Include="materials\**\*">
<DestinationFolders>$(MainOutputDirectory)\Resources\materials\%(RecursiveDir)</DestinationFolders>
</CopyFileToFolders>
</ItemGroup>
Besides being simple, this is a nice way to go because CopyFilesToFolders task will generate appropriate inputs, outputs and even TLog files therefore making sure that copy operations will run only when one of the input files has changed or one of the output files is missing. With TLog, Visual Studio will also properly recognize project as "up to date" or not (it uses a separate U2DCheck mechanism for that).
Related
This question already has an answer here:
How to get all the metadata keys for any ItemGroup item?
(1 answer)
Closed 6 years ago.
I compile C++ code with msbuild and I specify cl options inside ClCompile item. Something like...
<ItemGroup>
<ClCompile Include="something.cpp">
<FloatingPointModel>Precise</FloatingPointModel>
<WarningLevel>Level2</WarningLevel>
</ClCompile>
</ItemGroup>
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.default.props" />
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.props" />
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.Targets" />
The above is just an example. Now I want to print all options used for cl invocation. The question is: How do I do that? My first attempt was to use something like the following:
<Target Name="WriteToFile" AfterTargets="ClCompile" >
<WriteLinesToFile File="$(OutDir)\log.txt" Lines="#(ClCompile)" Overwrite="true" />
</Target>
Sadly, this logs only filename (something.cpp) and not the options.
Note that I'm aware that the compiler options are stored by Tracker.exe in CL.command.*.tlog file, but first, I don't want to rely on that as it's subject to change and second, I will most likely need to do some transformations later on. I also know that I could access individual options (like %(ClCompile.FloatingPointModel)), but I don't want handle each option separately either.
Is there a better way to do this?
There is no trivial solutions to do that.
You could find a starting point here
and another example here
I would like to use web deploy to publish a Visual Studio "Console" application to a folder on the target system.
I have had some luck, and have been able to produce something similar to what I need, but not quite.
I've added the following to the console .csproj:
added the following projectName.wpp.targets file
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
and I've added the following projectName.wpp.targets:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0">
<PropertyGroup>
<DeployAsIisApp>false</DeployAsIisApp>
<IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>false</IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config">
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
<FromTarget>projectName.wpp.targets</FromTarget>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
I then edit the .SetParameters.xml file as follows:
<parameters>
<setParameter name="IIS Web Application Name" value="c:\company\project" />
</parameters>
When I then deploy using the generated .cmd file, I get all the files deployed to C:\company\project\bin.
That's not bad, but I'd like to do better. In particular, I'd like to omit the "bin" folder and put all files in the "C:\company\project" folder, and I'd like to be able to specify the ACLs
Has anybody been able to work around these problems?
Ok, so here's the way how to omit the 'bin' folder.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that all this msdeploy-related stuff is for web apps deployment, and 'bin' folder seems for me to be almost hardcoded deeply inside. So if you want to get rid of it - you have to do some dirty things. Which I did.
We'll have to change $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets project a little bit, so it's better to change not it, but it's copy.
Steps:
1.Backup $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets(alternatively, you could install MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets package, redirect your csproj file to Microsoft.WebApplication.targets file obtained from package and work with it).
2. In the $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplicaton.targets find the xml node which looks like <CopyPipelineFiles PipelineItems="#(FilesForPackagingFromProject)"(there are several ones of them, take the one from the line ~2570).
3. Comment the node out, replace with the custom one, so eventually it will look like:
<!--
<CopyPipelineFiles PipelineItems="#(FilesForPackagingFromProject)"
SourceDirectory="$(WebPublishPipelineProjectDirectory)"
TargetDirectory="$(WPPAllFilesInSingleFolder)"
SkipMetadataExcludeTrueItems="True"
UpdateItemSpec="True"
DeleteItemsMarkAsExcludeTrue ="True"
Condition="'#(FilesForPackagingFromProject)' != ''">
<Output TaskParameter="ResultPipelineItems" ItemName="_FilesForPackagingFromProjectTempory"/>
</CopyPipelineFiles>-->
<!-- Copying files to package folder in 'custom'(dirty) way -->
<CreateItem Include="$(OutputPath)\**\*.*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy)"
DestinationFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy->'$(WPPAllFilesInSingleFolder)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
Then
4. Your projectName.wpp.targets don't have to have FilesForPackagingFromProject, so it will look like:
<!-- targets -->
<PropertyGroup>
<DeployAsIisApp>false</DeployAsIisApp>
<IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>false</IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- intentionally left blank -->
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
That's it. Worked for me(tm), tested. Let me be honest, I don't like this approach, but that was the only way I made it working in the needed way. It's up to you whether you'll use it in your project or not.
My opinion is not to use msdeploy here - it was not for you task.
Better to write msbuild-scripts from scratch or accept the 'bin' folder, and fight against the framework again once next customization is required.
I want to run unit tests using MSBuild. Here is how I invoke msbuild today:
msbuild MySolution.sln
Instead, I want to use an MSBuild project file called "MyBuild.proj" like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build">
<Target Name="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<SolutionToBuild Include="MySolution.sln" />
<TestContainer Include="..\Output\bin\Debug\*unittests.dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
</Project>
And then call this command line:
msbuild MyBuild.proj
For some reason, when I do that the command succeeds immediately and the build doesn't even happen. I fear I must be missing something very obvious as I am new to MSBuild.
I suppose I really have 2 questions:
Why doesn't this even build my solution
Is the "TestContainer" element correct for executing my tests
Thanks!
You havent supplied any task to actually do anything,
inside your build target you need a call to an msbuild task, your example becomes:
<Target Name="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<SolutionToBuild Include="MySolution.sln" />
<TestContainer Include="..\Output\bin\Debug\*unittests.dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionToBuild)"/>
</Target>
this specifies what projects you actually want msbuild to build.
See:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/z7f65y0d.aspx for more details and the parameters it takes.
Thats part one.
As for part 2? what testing framework are you using? If using mstest id try wrapping the commandline mstest.exe in an msbuild exec statement to get it to run and execute the tests. See an example here:http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msbuild/thread/cb87a184-6589-454b-bf1c-2e82771fc3aa
How do I make the postbuildevent execute AFTER the AfterBuild is completed?
The solution was to add :
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Exec Command="$(PostBuildEvent)" />
</Target>
I was actually using Costura VS Package and I wished it automatically did this.Anyway, I've modified the Costura VS Package source code and changed it so that it automatically adds this to the Web.Config.
Thanks.
I am trying to call the Publish target every time I build my WPF app. I have tweaked the .csproj file to include this:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Message Text="Running AfterBuild..." />
<MSBuild Projects="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration); PublishDependsOn=" Targets="Publish" />
</Target>
When I run this from the command line, I see the message that it is 'Running AfterBuild...' but nothing happens. If I remove the '; PublishDependsOn=' from the Properties of the MSBuild task, I get a circular reference error.
What magic am I missing here?
OK, I figured out how to do what I want to do. Instead of trying to explicitly call Publish in AfterBuild, I just added it to the DefaultTargets of the project. Now it calls Build then Publish.
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build;Publish" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">