What could I be doing wrong with my msbuild argument? - msbuild

Question

I have an msbuild argument
/t:Project.HQ.Web /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package
/p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true
/p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\"
in my Azure DevOps Build pipeline for Solution Build.
I get an error that says
Agent job 1: "Code\AnotherMutliProjSolution.sln(0,0): Error MSB4014:
The build stopped unexpectedly because of an internal failure.
System.ArgumentException: The name "Project.HQ.Web" contains an
invalid character ".". at
Microsoft.Build.Shared.ErrorUtilities.ThrowArgument(Exception
innerException, String resourceName, Object[] args) at
Microsoft.Build.Construction.ProjectTargetElement.set_Name(String
value) at
Microsoft.Build.Construction.ProjectTargetElement.CreateDisconnected(String
name, ProjectRootElement containingProject) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.ProjectTargetInstance.ToProjectTargetElement(ProjectRootElement
rootElement) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.ProjectInstance.ToProjectRootElement() at
Microsoft.Build.Construction.SolutionProjectGenerator.CreateSolutionProject(String
wrapperProjectToolsVersion, Boolean explicitToolsVersionSpecified) at
Microsoft.Build.Construction.SolutionProjectGenerator.Generate() at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.ProjectInstance.GenerateSolutionWrapper(String
projectFile, IDictionary2 globalProperties, String toolsVersion,
ILoggingService loggingService, BuildEventContext
projectBuildEventContext, IReadOnlyCollection1 targetNames,
ISdkResolverService sdkResolverService, Int32 submissionId) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.ProjectInstance.LoadSolutionForBuild(String
projectFile, PropertyDictionary1 globalPropertiesInstances, String
toolsVersion, BuildParameters buildParameters, ILoggingService
loggingService, BuildEventContext projectBuildEventContext, Boolean
isExplicitlyLoaded, IReadOnlyCollection1 targetNames,
ISdkResolverService sdkResolverService, Int32 submissionId) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.LoadSolutionIntoConfiguration(BuildRequestConfiguration
config, BuildRequest request) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.HandleNewRequest(Int32 node,
BuildRequestBlocker blocker) at
Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.IssueRequestToScheduler(BuildSubmission
submission, Boolean allowMainThreadBuild, BuildRequestBlocker
blocker)" Review
I have tried having a my target set as 'Project.HQ.Web' and "Project.HQ.Web". I still run into the same issues.

Answer 1

You need to replace the . with underscores to build the generated solution targets:
msbuild /t:Project_HQ_Web
See the following part of How to: Build specific targets in solutions by using MSBuild.exe
Specify the target after the -target: switch in the format
<ProjectName>:<TargetName>. If the project name contains any of the
characters %, $, #, ;, ., (, ), or ', replace them with an _ in the
specified target name.

Answer 2

From the documentation, /t is used to build target of a project. There is no switch for the project itself.
You must use as command line:
msbuild.exe /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package
/p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true
/p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\" "Project.HQ.Web"

Answer 3

I finally figured it out.
What I did was instead of build the solution,
I built the csproj file itself passing in the msbuild argument
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation=$(build.stagingDirectory)\\ProjectHQWeb