.Net Core MS Build Package Creation Lifecycle - msbuild

Question

MSBuild quite powerful and important tool, but sometimes configuration of it is the same hard as making a spaceship or flying to Mars. Answers on next questions can help makes it a little bit more usefull and developer friendly:
- How the MSBuild create a Package(zip)?
- Does it use some temporary folders or direct from builds output ?
- Why can the output folder content differ from a package content
- What events can be used to add some custom logic?
The answers to this question could help me with the next long story short:
I'm working with a .Net Core solution, that has the dependency on some other solutions DLLs files( that are not referenced directly, but required to be in the solution folder). On post-build event CL there is the option added as an entry point "\TaskEP" that is a starting point of the next pipeline :
<PropertyGroup>
<PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeployDependsOn>
TaskEP;
Task2;
Task3;
$(PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeployDependsOn);
</PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeployDependsOn>
<RunPostBuildEvent>Always</RunPostBuildEvent>
Tasks are mostly done for add extra DLLs to package and in general looks like :
<Target Name="TaskEP" Condition="$(SomeConditions) == 'True'">
<Message Importance="high" Text="TaskEP: Copying some files..." />
<ItemGroup>
<ItemsName Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..somepath..\Extra.dll;....dll" />
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="%(ItemsName.Identity)">
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Basically, for me, this instruction to MSBuild to add "Extra.dll" to output package.
Pubxml is quite usual :
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>Package</WebPublishMethod>
<LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Release</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
<LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
<_PackagePathShortened Condition="'$(_PackagePathShortened)' == ''">SuperWebSite</_PackagePathShortened>
<ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
<PackageLocation>..\..\..\..\BIN\WEB\Release\Publish\Super.WebApplication.zip</PackageLocation>
<PackageAsSingleFile>true</PackageAsSingleFile>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework> ....
And one instruction that replaces the long long path in the package to Short and defined one:
<Target Name="AddReplaceRuleForAppPath" BeforeTargets="BeforePublish">
<Message Text="Adding replace rules for application path '$(PublishIntermediateOutputPath)' replace with '$(_PackagePathShortened)'" Importance="high" />
<EscapeTextForRegularExpressions Text="$(PublishIntermediateOutputPath)">
<Output PropertyName="_PackagePathRegex" TaskParameter="Result" />
</EscapeTextForRegularExpressions>
<!-- Add a replace rule for VSMSDeploy resp. MSdeploy to update the path -->
<ItemGroup>
<MsDeployReplaceRules Include="replaceFullPath">
<Match>$(_PackagePathRegex)</Match>
<Replace>$(_PackagePathShortened)</Replace>
</MsDeployReplaceRules>
</ItemGroup>
I also duplicated the same "Copy" tasks here in .pubxml file , play with different events "AfterBuild", "BeforePublish" but seems that all of the just ignoring. I can see the "Extra" DLLs files in the build output directory and all Info Messages on publishing, but not in the final "Super.WebApplication.zip" file !

Answer 1

The solution I found to copy extra files in .Net Core is taken from this documentation
<ItemGroup>
<DotnetPublishFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..somepath..\Extra.dll;....dll" >
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\x86\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</DotnetPublishFiles>
</ItemGroup>