I created a Source Generator to extend (partial) classes which fulfill certain criteria. To check and view the generated code I enabled the emission of these files by adding the following to my project:
<PropertyGroup>
<EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>true</EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>
<CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>Generated</CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
This works as long as I don't do refactoring - like renaming a class. Because for every class a file is generated but not removed when I rename the "source" class.
So I added the following code to clean all generated files (on clean and rebuild)
<Target Name="CleanSourceGeneratedFiles" AfterTargets="Clean">
<RemoveDir Directories="Generated" />
</Target>
However then every second rebuild fails with:
Error CS2001 Source file 'xyz.generated.cs' could not be found.
So I'm looking for another way to keep my generated sources up to date, where the project not only compiles every second try.
Try this. It works for me.
<PropertyGroup>
<EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>true</EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>
<CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>Generated</CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CleanSourceGeneratedFiles" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild" DependsOnTargets="$(BeforeBuildDependsOn)">
<RemoveDir Directories="Generated" />
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Remove="Generated\**" />
<Content Include="Generated\**" />
</ItemGroup>
Related
Does anyone know how to modify a csproj file in a way to generate code files during build without actually referencing the files?
A process like :
create file,
dynamically reference temporary file during build
compiled assembly has additional members, depending on the files created during build
The purpose of this is to create a way of generating code files using roslyn instead of using t4 templates, which are very awkward to use once you're trying to do something depending on attributes.
Hence i am planning on providing a way to use a special csharp file (for full syntax support) to generate files programatically based on the contents of that special file.
I've spent a couple of weeks looking into resources on the internet (with the topic msbuild), but until now it seems i didn't use the right keywords.
This one has been the most insightful one to me yet:
https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-tools/extending-msbuild/
My guess is, that the correct build target for my purpose should be "BeforeCompile" in order to somehow populate the build process with custom code files.
Does anyone have experience with my issue, or is aware of any particular resources which deal with the task?
Solution i got it working with:
<UsingTask TaskName="DynamicCodeGenerator.DynamicFileGeneratorTask" AssemblyFile="..\DynamicCodeGenerator\bin\Debug\DynamicCodeGenerator.dll" />
<Target Name="DynamicCodeGeneratorTarget" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild;BeforeRebuild">
<DynamicFileGeneratorTask>
<Output ItemName="Generated" TaskParameter="GeneratedFilePaths" />
</DynamicFileGeneratorTask>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="#(Generated)" />
<FileWrites Include="#(Generated)" />
<!-- For clean to work properly -->
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Unfortunately i did not get it to work with a propertygroup override as suggested
Update: This link is interesting too: https://github.com/firstfloorsoftware/xcc/blob/master/FirstFloor.Xcc/Targets/Xcc.targets
Generating the code file can be achieved by msbuild task or msbuild inline task. It is up to you to generate the proper code. One thing that you must care of is creating output item parameter in order to append it to the #(Compile) item. You can use $(IntDir) location to locate your newly generated file, and add them to the #(FileWrites) item group in order for Clean target work properly.
When you finish writing your task, you must use it in your project like this:
<UsingTask TaskName="TaskTypeFullName" AssemblyFile="YourAssembly.dll"/>
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- Here you need to experiment with [Build/Compile/SomeOther]DependsOn property -->
<BuildDependsOn>
MyCodeGenerator;
$(BuildDependsOn)
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MyCodeGenerator">
<YourTaskName>
<Output ItemName="Generated" TaskParameter="GeneratedFiles" />
</YourTaskName>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="#(Generated)" />
<FileWrites Include="#(Generated)" /> <!-- For clean to work properly -->
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
I wanted to use a bash script to generate code for a project using dotnet core on Linux. Here is what worked for me. And thanks #stukselbax, I built this off of your answer.
<Target Name="GenerateProtocolBuffers" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild;BeforeRebuild">
<Exec Command="./generatecode.sh" Outputs="proto/*.cs">
<Output ItemName="Generated" TaskParameter="Outputs" />
</Exec>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="#(Generated)" />
<FileWrites Include="#(Generated)" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Note that the script I'm using to generate the code is called generatecode.sh. Replace this with your own.
I want to execute an msbuild project which uses batching to determine that one or more csproj projects have been freshly-built, and therefore require fresh nuget packaging. The script I've made so far seems like a reasonable start, but it the incremental-build mechanism isn't working. The MainBuild target executes every time, no matter what.
Here is what I have:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="MainBuild" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Content>content\plugins\</Content>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Nuspec Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\plugins\*\*.nuspec" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="MainBuild"
Inputs="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)bin\$(Configuration)\*.dll"
Outputs="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)%(FileName).pkg" >
<ItemGroup>
<Inputs Include="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)bin\$(Configuration)\*.dll" />
<Outputs Include="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)%(FileName).pkg" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="INPUTS: %(Inputs.FullPath)" />
<Message Text="OUTPUTS: #(Outputs->'%(FullPath)')" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(Inputs)" DestinationFiles="#(Outputs->'%(FullPath)')" />
</Target>
</Project>
The Copy task is just a debugging placeholder for calling-out to nuget and creating a new package.
The idea is that if any files in the bin\Debug directory are newer than the corresponding .nuspec file (found two folders above bin\Debug), then the MainBuild target should execute.
Any ideas?
p.s. The Inputs and Outputs attributes of the Target presumably each create an item. I think it strange that the items created can't be referenced inside the target. In the above example, I had to make a target-interna dynamic ItemGroup to re-create the items, just so that I could access them. Is there a way around that?
I read this in the MSBuild Batching documentation
If a task inside of a target uses batching, MSBuild needs to determine
if the inputs and outputs for each batch of items is up-to-date.
Otherwise, the target is executed every time it is hit.
Which may be the cuprit. Try changing your copy target to use batching instead of an ite transform (I don't think using item metadata in an item group satisfies the above requirement).
<Target Name="MainBuild"
Inputs="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)bin\$(Configuration)\*.dll"
Outputs="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)%(FileName).pkg" >
<ItemGroup>
<Inputs Include="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)bin\$(Configuration)\*.dll" />
<Outputs Include="%(Nuspec.RootDir)%(Nuspec.Directory)%(FileName).pkg" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="INPUTS: %(Inputs.FullPath)" />
<Message Text="OUTPUTS: #(Outputs->'%(FullPath)')" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(Inputs)" DestinationFiles="%(Outputs.FullPath)" />
</Target>
It looks like the number of inputs may be different than the number of outputs (I suspect there is more than one .dll files in the output directory for each project), which will also cause the target to execute.
How to specify additional assembly reference paths for the MSBuild tasks?
I have following script so far, but can't figure out how to specify additional search paths.
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectsToBuild Include="..\Main\Main.sln" />
</ItemGroup>
<!-- The follwing paths should be added to reference search paths for the build tasks -->
<ItemGroup>
<MyAddRefPath Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib1" />
<MyAddRefPath Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib2" />
</ItemGroup>
<MSBuild
Projects="#(ProjectsToBuild)"
Properties="Configuration=Debug;OutputPath=$(BuildOutputPath)">
</MSBuild>
UPDATE:
Please show one complete working script which invokes original project, such as an SLN with multiple additional reference paths.
No suggestions on how to improve the project structure please.
I know how to build a good structure, but now it's the task of building an existing piece of crap.
I have finaly figured out how to do it:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectsToBuild Include="ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<AdditionalReferencePaths Include="..\Build\ClassLibrary1" />
<AdditionalReferencePaths Include="..\Build\ClassLibrary2" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildOutputPath>..\Build\ConsoleApplication1</BuildOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MainBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<AdditionalReferencePathsProp>#(AdditionalReferencePaths)</AdditionalReferencePathsProp>
</PropertyGroup>
<MSBuild
Projects="ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.csproj"
Properties="ReferencePath=$(AdditionalReferencePathsProp);OutputPath=$(BuildOutputPath)"
>
</MSBuild>
</Target>
The property you want to modify is AssemblySearchPaths. See the ResolveAssemblyReference task more information.
<Target Name="AddToSearchPaths">
<CreateProperty Value="x:\path\to\assemblies;$(AssemblySearchPaths)">
<Output PropertyName="AssemblySearchPaths" TaskParameter="Value" />
</CreateProperty>
</Target>
Making use of item groups, as in your example, it would look like:
<Target Name="AddToSearchPaths">
<CreateProperty Value="#(MyAddRefPath);$(AssemblySearchPaths)">
<Output PropertyName="AssemblySearchPaths" TaskParameter="Value" />
</CreateProperty>
</Target>
Looking in %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets, you can see that the ResolveAssemblyReference Task is executed as part of the ResolveAssemblyReferences target. Thus, you want the newly added target to modify the AssemblySearchPaths property before ResolveAssemblyReferences is executed.
You've stated that you want to be able to modify the assembly search paths without modifying the project files directly. In order to accomplish that requirement you need to set an environment variable that will override the AssemblySearchPaths. With this technique you will need to provide every assembly reference path used by all the projects in the solutions. (Modifying the projects or copies of the projects would be easier. See final comments.)
One technique is to create a batch file that runs your script at sets the environment variable:
set AssemblySearchPaths="C:\Tacos;C:\Burritos;C:\Chalupas"
msbuild whatever.msbuild
Another way is to define a PropertyGroup in your custom msbuild file (otherwise known as the "hook" needed to make this work):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectsToBuild Include="..\Main\Main.sln" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<AssemblySearchPaths>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib1;$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib2</AssemblySearchPaths>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild Projects="#(ProjectsToBuild)" Properties="AssemblySearchPaths=$(AssemblySearchPaths);Configuration=Debug;OutputPath=$(OutputPath)" />
</Target>
</Project>
Now if it were me, and for whatever unexplained reason I couldn't modify the project files to include the updated references that I am going to build with, I would make copies of the project files, load them into the IDE, and correct the references in my copies. Synching the projects becomes a simple diff/merge operation which is automatic with modern tools like mercurial (heck I'm sure clearcase could manage it too).
...and remember that you don't need to use a target for this, you can use project-scoped properties or items, as...
<ItemGroup>
<MyAddRefPath Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib1" />
<MyAddRefPath Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib2" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<MyAddRefPath>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\Build\Lib3</MyAddRefPath>
<!-- add in the property path -->
<AssemblySearchPaths>$(MyAddRefPath);$(AssemblySearchPaths)</AssemblySearchPaths>
<!-- add in the item paths -->
<AssemblySearchPaths>#(MyAddRefPath);$(AssemblySearchPaths)</AssemblySearchPaths>
</PropertyGroup>
...and if you do need to do this in a target to pick up paths from a dynamically populated item group, use inline properties, not the CreateProperty task (if you are not stuck in v2.0)
<Target Name="AddToSearchPaths">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- add in the item paths -->
<AssemblySearchPaths>#(MyDynamicAddRefPath);$(AssemblySearchPaths)</AssemblySearchPaths>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
As part of a solution containing many projects, I have a project that references (via a <ProjectReference> three other projects in the solution, plus some others). In the AfterBuild, I need to copy the outputs of 3 specific dependent projects to another location.
Via various SO answers, etc. the way I settled on to accomplish that was:
<MSBuild
Projects="#(ProjectReference)"
Targets="Build"
BuildInParallel="true"
Condition="'%(Name)'=='ProjectA' OR '%(Name)'=='ProjectB' OR '%(Name)'=='ProjectC'">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="DependentAssemblies" />
</MSBuild>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(DependentAssemblies)" DestinationFolder="XX" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
However, I ran into problems with this. The <MSBuild step's IncrementalClean task ends up deleting a number of the outputs of ProjectC. When running this under VS2008, a build.force file being deposited in the obj/Debug folder of ProjectC which then triggers ProjectC getting rebuilt if I do a Build on the entire solution if the project containing this AfterBuild target, whereas if one excludes this project from the build, it [correctly] doesn't trigger a rebuild of ProjectC (and critically a rebuild of all dependents of ProjectC). This may be VS-specific trickery in this case which would not occur in the context of a TeamBuild or other commandline MSBuild invocation (but the most common usage will be via VS so I need to resolve this either way)
The dependent projects (and the rest of the solution in general) have all been created interactively with VS, and hence the ProjectRefences contain relative paths etc. I've seen mention of this being likely to causing issues - but without a full explanation of why, or when it'll be fixed or how to work around it. In other words, I'm not really interested in e.g. converting the ProjectReference paths to absolute paths by hand-editing the .csproj.
While it's entirely possible I'm doing something stupid and someone will immediately point out what it is (which would be great), be assured I've spent lots of time poring over /v:diag outputs etc. (although I havent tried to build a repro from the ground up - this is in the context of a relatively complex overall build)
As noted in my comment, calling GetTargetPath on the referenced project only returns the Primary output assembly of that project. To get all the referenced copy-local assemblies of the referenced project it's a bit messier.
Add the following to each project that you are referencing that you want to get the CopyLocals of:
<Target
Name="ComputeCopyLocalAssemblies"
DependsOnTargets="ResolveProjectReferences;ResolveAssemblyReferences"
Returns="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" />
My particular situation is that I needed to recreate the Pipeline folder structure for System.AddIn in the bin folder of my top level Host project. This is kinda messy and I was not happy with the MSDN suggested solutions of mucking with the OutputPath - as that breaks on our build server and prevents creating the folder structure in a different project (eg a SystemTest)
So along with adding the above target (using a .targets import), I added the following to a .targets file imported by each "host" that needs the pipeline folder created:
<Target
Name="ComputePipelineAssemblies"
BeforeTargets="_CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal"
Outputs="%(ProjectReference.Identity)">
<ItemGroup>
<_PrimaryAssembly Remove="#(_PrimaryAssembly)" />
<_DependentAssemblies Remove="#(_DependentAssemblies)" />
</ItemGroup>
<!--The Primary Output of the Pipeline project-->
<MSBuild Projects="%(ProjectReference.Identity)"
Targets="GetTargetPath"
Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)"
Condition=" '%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)' != '' ">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs"
ItemName="_PrimaryAssembly" />
</MSBuild>
<!--Output of any Referenced Projects-->
<MSBuild Projects="%(ProjectReference.Identity)"
Targets="ComputeCopyLocalAssemblies"
Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)"
Condition=" '%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)' != '' ">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs"
ItemName="_DependentAssemblies" />
</MSBuild>
<ItemGroup>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Include="#(_PrimaryAssembly)"
Condition=" '%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)' != '' ">
<DestinationSubDirectory>%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)</DestinationSubDirectory>
</ReferenceCopyLocalPaths>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Include="#(_DependentAssemblies)"
Condition=" '%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)' != '' ">
<DestinationSubDirectory>%(ProjectReference.PipelineFolder)</DestinationSubDirectory>
</ReferenceCopyLocalPaths>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
I also needed to add the required PipelineFolder meta data to the actual project references. For example:
<ProjectReference Include="..\Dogs.Pipeline.AddInSideAdapter\Dogs.Pipeline.AddInSideAdapter.csproj">
<Project>{FFCD0BFC-5A7B-4E13-9E1B-8D01E86975EA}</Project>
<Name>Dogs.Pipeline.AddInSideAdapter</Name>
<Private>False</Private>
<PipelineFolder>Pipeline\AddInSideAdapter\</PipelineFolder>
</ProjectReference>
Your original solution should work simply by changing
Targets="Build"
to
Targets="GetTargetPath"
The GetTargetPath target simply returns the TargetPath property and doesn't require building.
You may protect your files in ProjectC if you call a target like this first:
<Target Name="ProtectFiles">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="obj\ProjectC.csproj.FileListAbsolute.txt">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="_FileList"/>
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<CreateItem Include="#(_DllFileList)" Exclude="File1.sample; File2.sample">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="_FileListWitoutProtectedFiles"/>
</CreateItem>
<WriteLinesToFile
File="obj\ProjectC.csproj.FileListAbsolute.txt"
Lines="#(_FileListWitoutProtectedFiles)"
Overwrite="true"/>
</Target>
My current workaround is based on this SO question, i.e, I have:
<ItemGroup>
<DependentAssemblies Include="
..\ProjectA\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectA.dll;
..\ProjectB\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectB.dll;
..\ProjectC\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectC.dll">
</DependentAssemblies>
</ItemGroup>
This however will break under TeamBuild (where all the outputs end up in one directory), and also if the names of any of the outputs of the dependent projects change.
EDIT: Also looking for any comments on whether there's a cleaner answer for how to make the hardcoding slightly cleaner than:
<PropertyGroup>
<_TeamBuildingToSingleOutDir Condition="'$(TeamBuildOutDir)'!='' AND '$(CustomizableOutDir)'!='true'">true</_TeamBuildingToSingleOutDir>
</PropertyGroup>
and:
<ItemGroup>
<DependentAssemblies
Condition="'$(_TeamBuildingToSingleOutDir)'!='true'"
Include="
..\ProjectA\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectA.dll;
..\ProjectB\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectB.dll;
..\ProjectC\bin\$(Configuration)\ProjectC.dll">
</DependentAssemblies>
<DependentAssemblies
Condition="'$(_TeamBuildingToSingleOutDir)'=='true'"
Include="
$(OutDir)\ProjectA.dll;
$(OutDir)\ProjectB.dll;
$(OutDir)\ProjectC.dll">
</DependentAssemblies>
</ItemGroup>
In MSBuild, I would like to call a task that extracts all the files in all the project in a specific solution and hold these files in a property that can be passed around to other tasks (for processing etc.)
I was thinking something along the lines of:
<ParseSolutionFile SolutionFile="$(TheSolutionFile)">
<Output TaskParameter="FilesFound" ItemName="AllFilesInSolution"/>
</ParseSolutionFile>
<Message Text="Found $(AllFilesInSolution)" />
which would output the list of all files in the projects in the solution and I could use the AllFilesInSolution property as input to other analysis tasks. Is this an already existing task or do I need to build it myself? If I need to build it myself, should the task output an array of strings or of ITaskItems or something else?
I don't know about tasks, but there are already properties that hold all items. Just look in your typical project file and you'll see which collection they're being added to.
Note the properties Content, Compile, Folder... any time you add a file to a project, it gets put in one of the main collections like this:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="Default.aspx" />
<Content Include="Web.config" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="Default.aspx.cs">
<SubType>ASPXCodeBehind</SubType>
<DependentUpon>Default.aspx</DependentUpon>
</Compile>
<Compile Include="Default.aspx.designer.cs">
<DependentUpon>Default.aspx</DependentUpon>
</Compile>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Folder Include="App_Data\" />
</ItemGroup>
Then you can do stuff like this to put the values from existing properties into your properties (the Condition attribute acts as a filter):
<CreateItem Include="#(Content)" Condition="'%(Extension)' == '.aspx'">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="ViewsContent" />
</CreateItem>
Or you can do it manually (the Include attribute uses the existing property OutputPath, but it indicates a path that inclues all files):
<CreateItem Include="$(OutputPath)\**\*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="OutputFiles" />
</CreateItem>
There are more details in the MSDN MSBuild documentation that I read when I was mucking with custom build tasks and stuff that was very helpful. Go read up on the CreateItem task and you'll be able to make more sense out of what I posted here. It's really easy to pick up on.
I use the following for solutions with SSRS projects (which dont build under TFS w/o vs installed on the build box). Basically we require that the RDLs be bundled into a build output so we can mark a build for release.
<Target Name="CopyArtifactstoDropLocation">
<CreateItem Include="$(SolutionRoot)\**\*.*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy)"
DestinationFiles="#(YourFilesToCopy->'$(DropLocation)\$(BuildNumber)\Release\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
Just replace the usage of the Copy Task with whatever you need to do with your bundle. Granted this is going to get everything in your solution root, but if your using TFS then you should only have buildable artifacts.