What does .exe file used for in framework-dependente publish? the project works on IIS and by kestrel with and without this file. So what is the benefit of this file?
Despite the fact that a native executable is not required for framework-dependent deployments, it's still generated by default. You can set the UseAppHost property in .csproj to false to disable generation of the executable.
<PropertyGroup>
<UseAppHost>false</UseAppHost>
</PropertyGroup>
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/project-sdk/msbuild-props?WT.mc_id=DT-MVP-5002999#useapphost
Since dotnet core moved back to the .csproj format, there is a new autogenerated MyProject.AssemblyInfo.cs which contains, among others:
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("MyProject")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")]
Note that this is automatically regenerated every build.
Previously, the file was found in the /obj/ directory, now it appears to be only in memory as the file can't be found on disk and clicking the error message does not open any file.
This is the error message:
Since they are defined there, I can't define them myself in the classical AssemblyInfo.cs.
Where/how can I define the Company and Version of a project?
As you've already noticed, you can control most of these settings in .csproj.
If you'd rather keep these in AssemblyInfo.cs, you can turn off auto-generated assembly attributes.
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
If you want to see what's going on under the hood, checkout Microsoft.NET.GenerateAssemblyInfo.targets inside of Microsoft.NET.Sdk.
Those settings have moved into the .csproj file.
By default, they don't show up but you can discover them from Visual Studio 2017 in the project properties Package tab.
Once saved those values can be found in MyProject.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net461</TargetFramework>
<Version>1.2.3.4</Version>
<Authors>Author 1</Authors>
<Company>Company XYZ</Company>
<Product>Product 2</Product>
<PackageId>MyApp</PackageId>
<AssemblyVersion>2.0.0.0</AssemblyVersion>
<FileVersion>3.0.0.0</FileVersion>
<NeutralLanguage>en</NeutralLanguage>
<Description>Description here</Description>
<Copyright>Copyright</Copyright>
<PackageLicenseUrl>License URL</PackageLicenseUrl>
<PackageProjectUrl>Project URL</PackageProjectUrl>
<PackageIconUrl>Icon URL</PackageIconUrl>
<RepositoryUrl>Repo URL</RepositoryUrl>
<RepositoryType>Repo type</RepositoryType>
<PackageTags>Tags</PackageTags>
<PackageReleaseNotes>Release</PackageReleaseNotes>
</PropertyGroup>
In the file explorer properties information tab, FileVersion is shown as "File Version" and Version is shown as "Product version"
I do the following for my .NET Standard 2.0 projects.
Create a Directory.Build.props file (e.g. in the root of your repo)
and move the properties to be shared from the .csproj file to this file.
This also enables central management of these shared properties in a multi project solution, allowing for example to set the copyright and/or version numbers only once for all projects.
MSBuild will pick it up automatically and apply them to the autogenerated AssemblyInfo.cs.
They also get applied to the nuget package when building one with dotnet pack or via the UI in Visual Studio 2017.
See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-your-build
Example:
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<Company>Some company</Company>
<Copyright>Copyright © 2020</Copyright>
<AssemblyVersion>1.0.0.1</AssemblyVersion>
<FileVersion>1.0.0.1</FileVersion>
<Version>1.0.0.1</Version>
<!-- ... -->
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
You can always add your own AssemblyInfo.cs, which comes in handy for InternalsVisibleToAttribute, CLSCompliantAttribute and others that are not automatically generated.
Adding AssemblyInfo.cs to a Project
In Solution Explorer, right click on <project name> > Add > New Folder.
Name the folder "Properties".
Right click on the "Properties" folder, and click Add > New Item....
Select "Class" and name it "AssemblyInfo.cs".
Suppressing Auto-Generated Attributes
If you want to move your attributes back to AssemblyInfo.cs instead of having them auto-generated, you can suppress them in MSBuild as natemcmaster pointed out in his answer.
Adding to NightOwl888's answer, you can go one step further and add an AssemblyInfo class rather than just a plain class:
I want to extend this topic/answers with the following. As someone mentioned, this auto-generated AssemblyInfo can be an obstacle for the external tools. In my case, using FinalBuilder, I had an issue that AssemblyInfo wasn't getting updated by build action. Apparently, FinalBuilder relies on ~proj file to find location of the AssemblyInfo. I thought, it was looking anywhere under project folder. No. So, changing this
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
did only half the job, it allowed custom assembly info if built by VS IDE/MS Build. But I needed FinalBuilder do it too without manual manipulations to assembly info file. I needed to satisfy all programs, MSBuild/VS and FinalBuilder.
I solved this by adding an entry to the existing ItemGroup
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Remove="Common\**" />
<Content Remove="Common\**" />
<EmbeddedResource Remove="Common\**" />
<None Remove="Common\**" />
<!-- new added item -->
<None Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
Now, having this item, FinalBuilder finds location of AssemblyInfo and modifies the file. While action None allows MSBuild/DevEnv ignore this entry and no longer report an error based on Compile action that usually comes with Assembly Info entry in proj files.
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.0.2\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\build\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.DefaultItems.targets(263,5):
error : Duplicate 'Compile' items were included. The .NET SDK includes 'Compile' items from your project directory by default.
You can either remove these items from your project file, or set the 'EnableDefaultCompileItems' property to 'false' if you want to explicitly include them in your project file.
For more information, see https://aka.ms/sdkimplicititems. The duplicate items were: 'AssemblyInfo.cs'
Thanks, this helped me a lot.
In my case, building the project Blazor Server Side Website was successful both on Release and Debug, but publishing the website still failed with the Duplicate Attribute error, which confused me a bit.
The solution was to add <GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo> both to the .csproj and .pubxml file:
Path: <Project>/Properties/PublishProfiles/<ProfileName>.pubxml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
...
<!-- Add the line below -->
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
With .NET 5+, you can use AssemblyMetadata:
<AssemblyMetadata Include="Bar" Value="Baz" />
I want to Publish my WCF Service Library using MSBuild Command Line with VS2012, i don't want to do right click->Publish Website , instead i want to publish it using Command Prompt(MSBuild).
What are the Pre-requisites required for MSBuild?
I don't have windows azure,it is necessary to install windows azure?
I am new to MSBuild, and I would like step by step instructions on how to accomplish this?
I want the .svc file, all the dll's inside the bin folder and web config file to be present inside the published folder.
I found the answer for my question with the reference as below link,
"http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/deployment/visual-studio-web-deployment/command-line-deployment"
using the command line "msbuild C:\ContosoUniversity\ContosoUniversity.sln /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=Test"
Your solution is fine and will work to deploy directly out to your host (don't forget to include your build Configuration so it publishes the correct config transform).
Another option is to "publish" your site to a local folder and then upload it to your host separately. This also gives you a chance to archive the site in a zip, do post checks and troubleshoot.
You can do this like so:
<MSBuild Projects="WebProject.csproj"
Targets="Rebuild;_WPPCopyWebApplication"
Properties="WebProjectOutputDir=WebProject\;UseWPP_CopyWebApplication=True;PipelineDependsOnBuild=False;" />
If you get stuck there are more details on publishing WCF, ASP.NET and MVC projects.
You can try with this.
The svc file was manually generated for first time use and then added to the project.
Content Include="*.svc" ---- Change this with the name of the file generated by VS Publish Option.
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="*.svc">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<WebConfig Include="App.config" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(WebConfig)" DestinationFiles="$(OutDir)web.config" />
</Target>
I am writing a web development targets file and would like to programmatically determine the name of the directory that appears beneath "_PublishedWebsites".
I currently have to use this:
$(BinariesRoot)\%(ConfigurationToBuild.FlavorToBuild)\_PublishedWebsites\ MyWebApplication
Any ideas?
(I am not using this for solutions with more than one website to publish)
The new Web Publishing Pipeline (WPP) in .NET 4.0 has a method for controlling the output location.
First, you need to opt-in to WPP during the execution of the CopyWebApplication target. Set the following MSBuild properties, either at command line or in the MSBuild project file:
<PropertyGroup>
<UseWPP_CopyWebApplication>True</UseWPP_CopyWebApplication>
<PipelineDependsOnBuild>False</PipelineDependsOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
The command line-variant is:
/p:UseWPP_CopyWebApplication=True /p:PipelineDependsOnBuild=False
Next, create a new MSBuild targets file in the same directory as your project and name it "ProjectName.wpp.targets" where "ProjectName" is the filename of your project, minus the extension. In other words, if you have "MyWebsite.csproj" you need to create "MyWebsite.wpp.targets". I find it helps to add the targets file to the project as well. It's not required, but it makes it easier to edit.
In the new targets file, you will need to override the WebProjectOutputDir property. Only do this when CopyWebApplication will be called - in other words, when the "OutDir" is redirected away from the "OutputPath":
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebProjectOutputDir Condition="'$(OutDir)' != '$(OutputPath)'">$(OutDir)Websites\MyCustomFolderName</WebProjectOutputDir>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
That's it - you should be good to go. You can test it locally by setting the OutDir property. Don't forget the trailing backslash:
msbuild MyWebsite.csproj /p:OutDir=C:\Development\WebOutputTest\
I am using MSbuild to publish my webservices projects on the command line using the following
command:
msbuild.exe MyWebservicesProjectPath\Services.csproj /t:ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication /p:Configuration=Release;BuildingProject=true;WebProjectOutputDir=c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webserviceDest;OutDir=c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webserviceDest\
Everything publishes fine except for .xsd files that are located in ProjectName\WebServices\Schema folder.
what's happening here?
Thanks.
In your solution check the property of your .xsd file.
The default setting of this type of artifact for the "Copy to Output Directory" is "Do Not Copy".
Setting this to "Copy always" (or "Copy if newer") should fix your problem.
Project file sample
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="XMLSchema1.xsd">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
In the solution explorer right click on .XSD file -> click Properties and change Build Action to "Content" under Advanced section.