New msbuild csproj format have got integrated nuget commands. It's possible to change default path where project assets will be restored by using <RestoreOutputPath>obj\profile7</RestoreOutputPath> command in project file.
But if I add <RestoreOutputPath>obj\profile7</RestoreOutputPath> to csproj file consequent commands
dotnet restore myproj.sln
dotnet build myproj.sln
produce build errors
obj\project.assets.json' not found. Run a NuGet package restore to generate this file.
How to tell MSBuild to get nuget assets from this obj\Profile7 path during the build command?
The restore output path needs to be the same as MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath so that the nuget generated props and targets files will be imported by the common props and targets. as well as BaseIntermediateOutputPath will be the default for composing the path to ProjectAssetsFile.
At least for the NuGet imports, it is important that MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath or BaseIntermediateOutputPath is set before the SDK props file is imported.
The simplest way to solve all of these issues is to set BaseIntermediateOutputPath very early in the project so that all components will take its value as a default base path - this is essentially redirecting obj to somewhere else.
This conflicts with the <Project SDK="..."> syntax since there is no way to set properties before the SDK's props file. To work around this, the project can be changed like this:
<Project>
<!-- This needs to be set before Sdk.props -->
<PropertyGroup>
<BaseIntermediateOutputPath>obj\SomeSubDir\</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="Sdk.props" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- other content -->
<Import Project="Sdk.targets" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
</Project>
An alternative would be to create a Directory.Build.props file that will be automatically imported early enough, but this would apply the value to all projects in the directory and take away the ability to specify the value per project.
Related
csproj file contains project properties which I'd like to use in CI/CD pipeline.
Is it possible to extract those values with dotnet cli (or some other standard tool) without parsing xml via some standalone script?
For example having the project:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<Version>1.0.0</Version>
<GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>
</<Project>
I need to resolve the value of <Version>.
It's also wroth noting that project may contain conditional elements, and ideally it would be nice to resolve properties in the context of predefined variables.
MSBuild is very extensible. You could use a target to write the version number to a file:
<Target Name="WriteVersion" AfterTargets="Build">
<WriteLinesToFile Lines="$(Version)"
File="$(IntermediateOutputPath)version.txt" />
</Target>
That would write a version.txt file to a folder such as obj/Debug/net5.0 (depending on the Configuration and TargetFramework).
Also be sure to check out https://msbuildlog.com/ for how to investigate / debug builds.
I have a file named Common.targets defined like so:
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<TlbExpPath>"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6.1 Tools\x64\tlbexp"</TlbExpPath>
<TlbOutPath>"$(OutDir)..\TLB\$(TargetName).tlb"</TlbOutPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="TlbExp" AfterTargets="CopyFilesToOutputDirectory" Inputs="$(TargetPath)" Outputs="$(TlbOutPath)">
<Exec Command='$(TlbExpPath) "$(TargetPath)" /nologo /win64 /out:$(TlbOutPath) /verbose' />
</Target>
</Project>
When I inspect the output of the TlbOutPath property, it looks like:
"..\TLB\.tlb"
Apparently, $(OutDir) and $(TargetName) produce nothing when used within a PropertyGroup. I'm not sure why. How can I make these paths/values reusable while still having access to built-in properties when they are defined?
I'm using MSBuild that comes bundled with Visual Studio 2019. I add an Import element to my actual .csproj projects to include this target where I need it. The csproj projects use the SDK format for the projects, e.g. <Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">.
Here is an example of what the import looks like:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<!-- etc -->
<ItemGroup>
<Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
<!-- etc -->
</ItemGroup>
<Import Project="$(RepositoryRoot)\Common.targets" />
</Project>
MSBuild: How may I access built-in properties while defining my own
custom properties?
This is quite an issue in the new sdk format project. I have tested it and got the same issue as you said which quite bother me a lot. Like $(OutDir),$(TargetName),$(OutputPath),$(TargetPath) and some other common system properties cannot be used in a new property while $(Configuration) and $(AssemblyName) works well.
And not only us but also someone else also face the same issue about it.See this thread.
For the traditional old csproj format project, there was no problem with these properties being used this way, but in the new SDK format project, it is impossible to assign some common properties such as $(OutDir),$(TargetName) and $(TargetPath) to a new property. As we know, most of the common properties are defined in the Microsoft.Common.props file(old csproj format) which is quite different from the new sdk format project which does not have such file.
In order to get an answer,l have reported this issue to DC Forum. See this.You can enter this link and add any detailed comments to describe this issue. And anyone who interested in this issue will also vote it so that it will get more Microsoft staff's attention. All these efforts will speed up and get the final answer.
This process may take a while or you could try my suggestion.
Suggestion
1) You can customize this property $(OutDir) in Common.targets file, and use $(TargetFramework) instead of $(TargetName) since $(TargetFramework) is defined in the xxxx.csproj file.
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<OutDir>bin\$(Configuration)\$(TargetFramework)\$(AssemblyName)\</OutDir>
<TlbExpPath>"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6.1 Tools\x64\tlbexp"</TlbExpPath>
<TlbOutPath>"$(OutDir)..\TLB\$(TargetName).tlb"</TlbOutPath>
<TargetPath>xxxx\xxxx.dll(exe)</TargetPath>--------the absolute path of the output file
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="TlbExp" AfterTargets="CopyFilesToOutputDirectory" Inputs="$(TargetPath)" Outputs="$(TlbOutPath)">
<Exec Command='$(TlbExpPath) "$(TargetPath)" /nologo /win64 /out:$(TlbOutPath) /verbose' />
</Target>
</Project>
2) use Directory.Build.targets file rather than a custom targets file.
A) You should add a file named Directory.Build.targets(it must be named this and have its own rule to be imported into xxx.csproj) under the project folder.
B) add the content of Common.targets into it without any changes and then build your project directly. The Directory.Build.targets will be imported into your project automatically while build.
This function works well and will not lose any properties. However, l stil bother why it works.
Conclusion
I think #2 is more suitable and easier for you to achieve your goal.
I have a Visual Studio 2017 solution that contains two projects:
Foo.csproj
Foo.Core.csproj
Both of these projects target multiple frameworks: net452;netstandard1.2
Foo.csproj includes a project reference to Foo.Core.csproj:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\Foo.Core\Foo.Core.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
When I generate a NuGet package for Foo.csproj, I want the nupkg file to include both of these assemblies.
What is currently happening is that the NuGet package that gets created has Foo.dll and then a NuGet dependency on Foo.Core (which doesn't exist).
How can I generate a single NuGet package using msbuild that will include both assemblies?
For reference this is the command I am currently using (which is not working how I want it to):
msbuild /p:restore,pack Foo.csproj
This is currently not directly supported by NuGet out of the box. You can follow this GitHub issue for updates.
However, there are a few ways to create such NuGet package.
Use the "Nugetizer 3000"
This is an newly developed tool to build NuGet packages from projects and works by installing the NuGet.Build.Packaging nuget package. You can find some documentation on it on its GitHub wiki page but since it is a very new project, there isn't much documentation or community knowledge around it yet(!) (but the team developing it is very helpful, you could file GitHub issues if you get stuck).
Adding a custom target in the project (2.0.0 tooling / VS 2017 15.3+): Create an item in the csproj that will include the referenced project's output DLL
This approach is very hacky as it relies on an internal MSBuild item that the pack targets use. It works by first marking the <ProjectReference> to not be referenced from the created nuget package like this:
<ProjectReference Include="..\libA\libA.csproj" PrivateAssets="All"/>
Then you can add this to the project to include the generated libA.dll in the nuget package:
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>$(TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput);IncludeP2PAssets</TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="IncludeP2PAssets">
<ItemGroup>
<BuildOutputInPackage Include="$(OutputPath)\testprivatelib.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Note that this requires you to add all the <PackageReference> items of the referenced project to the project you generate the package from since they would be missing from the generated package since you effectively disabled the transitive reference behaviour.
Create a custom .nuspec file
At the time of writing, this is probably the most "supported" way, but also the most complex. NuGet allows you to disable the automatic generation of the resulting .nuspec file and automatic collection of files by setting the <NuspecFile> property in your project, along with a <NuspecProperties> property that allows you to pass replacement tokens for parsing the .nuspec file.
This works by modifying the project file like this:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard1.4</TargetFramework>
<NuspecFile>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)$(MSBuildProjectName).nuspec</NuspecFile>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\LibB\LibB.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="SetNuspecProperties" BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec">
<PropertyGroup>
<NuspecProperties>$(NuspecProperties);id=$(AssemblyName)</NuspecProperties>
<NuspecProperties>$(NuspecProperties);config=$(Configuration)</NuspecProperties>
<NuspecProperties>$(NuspecProperties);version=$(PackageVersion)</NuspecProperties>
<NuspecProperties>$(NuspecProperties);description=$(Description)</NuspecProperties>
<NuspecProperties>$(NuspecProperties);authors=$(Authors)</NuspecProperties>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
</Project>
This will automatically look for a .nuspec file with the same name as the project (somelib.csproj => somelib.nuspec) and pass some properties along to it. The properties are created in a target in order to be able to access fully resolved and defaulted properties like PackageVersion.
The .nuspec file could look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2012/06/nuspec.xsd">
<metadata>
<id>$id$</id>
<version>$version$</version>
<authors>$authors$</authors>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>$description$</description>
<dependencies>
<group targetFramework=".NETStandard1.4">
<dependency id="NETStandard.Library" version="1.6.1" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
</group>
</dependencies>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="bin\$config$\netstandard1.4\*.dll" target="lib\netstandard1.4\" />
</files>
</package>
Note that you must add all referenced NuGet packages as a <dependency> element in the .nuspec file since these are no longer automatically generated from the <PackageReference> items in your project file. Refer to the NuSpec Reference for more details.
I have recently created an example project on GitHub demonstrating the use of a custom .nuspec file for exactly this purpose.
The second option that Martin Ullrich mentioned is the only one that works out of the box with .NET Standard that allows to "Generate NuGet package on build" as an integral part of the build.
However like he mentions it has a "hard coded" dependency on a dll with an exact name that you expect to be there (on the output folder) which might bite you in the future. I've found a better alternative which worked for me in .NET Standard without the need of any other modification on this post.
I'll quote it here for completeness.
First you edit your csproj and define the PrivateAssets tag for the reference that you'd like to include:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\ClassLibrary1\ClassLibrary1.csproj">
<PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
</ProjectReference>
</ItemGroup>
Then you add this to your csproj:
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>$(TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput);CopyProjectReferencesToPackage</TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CopyProjectReferencesToPackage" DependsOnTargets="ResolveReferences">
<ItemGroup>
<BuildOutputInPackage Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths->WithMetadataValue('ReferenceSourceTarget', 'ProjectReference')->WithMetadataValue('PrivateAssets', 'all'))" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
That post also shows how to include the PDBs in the NuGet package option if necessary (which I omitted here).
Been struggling with the same issue and none of the suggested workarounds worked (https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/3891) and I couldn't change the csproj to use the new SDK coming with .netcore.
Luckily the nuget pack command comes with the -IncludeReferencedProjects option (ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/tools/cli-ref-pack) which does exactly that:
"Indicates that the built package should include referenced projects either as dependencies or as part of the package. If a referenced project has a corresponding .nuspec file that has the same name as the project, then that referenced project is added as a dependency. Otherwise, the referenced project is added as part of the package."
Regardless of the *.nuspec file (not needed here) , add -IncludeReferencedProjects to the pack command and the referenced project dlls will be included along with the nuget dll.
nuget.exe pack yourProject.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects
I have recently discovered that you CANNOT set defaults for the Nuspec Properties you want to replace in the msbuild command line e.g. if a metadata value is set in the .csproj file of "<Version>2.0.0</Version>" and you run:
msbuild myproject.csproj -t:pack -p:Configuration=Release -p:NuspecProperties=Configuration=Release;PackageVersion=1.2.3
Your .nupgk file will have the version 2.0.0 still. Annoyingly the MS documentation is not clear on this and no error is displayed.
I have an MVC application which I have got working on Azure apart from getting the published .cspkg file to include css/jscript that is created in an afterbuild process (this works if I publish to a normal server which isn't using Azure).
In the afterbuild process I minify and merge files then add them to a deploy zip:
<PackageLocation>..\Deploy\Website.zip</PackageLocation>
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
CustomCollectFiles;
$(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
</CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
What MSBuild code do I need to change in order to do the same task but adding to the cspkg instead?
Here is how I just did it. In this example I have a .csproj file that is part of an Azure solution and the dll produced by my C# project needs a particular Xml file to live right next to it in the deployment. Here are some msbuild fragments from my .csproj file that show the technique. You can place all of this code below the import of Microsoft.CSharp.targets in your .csproj file.
<!-- Identify the Xml input file that must be deployed next to our dll. -->
<ItemGroup>
<SpecialXmlFileItem Include="c:\temp\MySpecialFile.xml" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- In my case I needed the as-deployed Xml filename to be fixed and yet I wanted it to be possible
to provide any filename at all to be provided as the source. Here we are defining the fixed,
as-deployed filename. -->
<AsDeployedXmlFilename>MyServiceStorageConfig.xml</AsDeployedXmlFilename>
<!-- Wire our own AddFilesToProjectDeployment target into the GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItems
target. That target is evaluated not only as part of normal .csproj evaluation, but also as part
of .ccproj evaluation. It is how the .ccproj manages to interrogate your dll producing projects
about all of the project files that need to be packaged. -->
<GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItemsDependsOn>
AddFilesToProjectDeployment;
$(GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItemsDependsOn)
</GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItemsDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AddFilesToProjectDeployment">
<Error Condition="!Exists('#(SpecialXmlFileItem)')"
Text="The all important and very special XML file is not found: %(SpecialXmlFileItem.ItemSpec)" />
<ItemGroup>
<ContentWithTargetPath Include="#(SpecialXmlFileItem->'%(FullPath)')">
<!-- In my case I wanted to deploy my xml file right next to my .dll, so I included no relative
path information in the below value of TargetPath, just the simple filename. But, I think if you
included relative path information in the below value that it would be preserved in the deployment. -->
<TargetPath>$(AsDeployedXmlFilename)</TargetPath>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</ContentWithTargetPath>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
-Bern McCarty
I think this is just a question of timing... make sure the files get combined, minified, and placed into build before the publishing (packaging) step happens.
Sorry I don't have more details; I've never tried to do this sort of thing.
I am trying to automate the process for setting the Version for all DLL's, after spending some time I came to know the AssemblyInfo Task with which it can most likely be achieved.
So I went ahead and installed it, specifically version 1.0.51130.0.
After Installing, I manually added the Import Tag (by unloading the each project) of AssemblyInfoTask in .cspoj files (the solution has more than 35 proj files).
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\AssemblyInfoTask\Microsoft.VersionNumber.Targets"/>
Next I modified the Microsoft.VersionNUmber.Target file which will be installed in path: C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\AssemblyInfoTask, and I modified the following section:
<!-- Properties for controlling the Assembly Version -->
<PropertyGroup>
<AssemblyMajorVersion>4</AssemblyMajorVersion>
<AssemblyMinorVersion>0</AssemblyMinorVersion>
<AssemblyBuildNumber></AssemblyBuildNumber>
<AssemblyRevision></AssemblyRevision>
<AssemblyBuildNumberType>DateString</AssemblyBuildNumberType>
<AssemblyBuildNumberFormat>01MMdd</AssemblyBuildNumberFormat>
<AssemblyRevisionType>AutoIncrement</AssemblyRevisionType>
<AssemblyRevisionFormat>00</AssemblyRevisionFormat>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- Properties for controlling the Assembly File Version -->
<PropertyGroup>
<AssemblyFileMajorVersion>4</AssemblyFileMajorVersion>
<AssemblyFileMinorVersion>0</AssemblyFileMinorVersion>
<AssemblyFileBuildNumber></AssemblyFileBuildNumber>
<AssemblyFileRevision></AssemblyFileRevision>
<AssemblyFileBuildNumberType>DateString</AssemblyFileBuildNumberType>
<AssemblyFileBuildNumberFormat>01MMdd</AssemblyFileBuildNumberFormat>
<AssemblyFileRevisionType>AutoIncrement</AssemblyFileRevisionType>
<AssemblyFileRevisionFormat>00</AssemblyFileRevisionFormat>
</PropertyGroup>
Next I set the assemblyInfo.cs file's version to 1.0.0.0 in every project. Finally I saved and close it, reopened solution, and built. It works like a champ!
Now what want is to customize the Version to 4.0.1053.1 where 10 is the part of year indicator which is 2010 and 53 denotes the week number, at last 1 denotes revision number.
How to achieve this using the AssemblyInfo Task? I came across several posts that a new version of AssemblyInfo Task is available in Build Extension Pack.
I have installed the MSBuild Extension Pack December 2010 and its version is MSBuild Extension Pack 4.0.2.0 Installer
First.. use a globalassemblyinfo.cs that is linked from each project.
Add its as linked file to each project.
This means you update one file, not 30+ assemblyinfo files...then:
use MSBuild.Community.Tasks....
Then call
<AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="CS"
OutputFile="$(VersionFile)"
AssemblyCompany="Company"
AssemblyProduct="Product"
AssemblyCopyright="Copyright © Company 2011"
ComVisible="false"
AssemblyVersion="$(BUILD_NUMBER)"
AssemblyFileVersion="$(BUILD_NUMBER)" />
Assuming you have something like:
<Import Project=".\tasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
I do this in Jenkins by having a package build that is parameterised using the List Subversion Tags parameter type. The Subversion tag must follow the version number format (major.minor.revision.build), e.g. tags/2.0.0.1. The tag name is then assigned to a Jenkins parameter, e.g. $VERSION becomes 2.0.0.1
I use the WriteLinesToFile msbuild task to write out the assembly attribute to a second file alongside the PropertyInfo.cs called VersionInfo.cs. As checked in to source control, this just contains a default version number:
// Do not change this. The version is set on package builds only by setting the AsmVersion MSBuild property
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("0.0.0.0")]
The package build on the build server passes in the version via the AsmVersion parameter:
/p:AsmVersion=$VERSION
The .csproj file is modified to have a BeforeBuild target (Visual Studio creates a commented out one for you):
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<WriteLinesToFile
Condition=" '$(AsmVersion)' != '' " File="Properties\VersionInfo.cs"
Overwrite="True"
Lines="[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("$(AsmVersion)")] // Generated by build" />
</Target>
When building in Visual Studio, or without passing in the AsmVersion, your assembly will have a default version of 0.0.0.0. When building in the package build, you will get your desired build number.
As #bruceboughton proposed, you can easily generate a version assembly file during compilation without using MSBuild.Community.Tasks library:
<PropertyGroup>
<Version>0.0.0</Version>
<InformationalVersion>0.0.0-dev~commithash</InformationalVersion>
<VersionFileName>$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)Version.cs</VersionFileName>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="GenerateVersionFile" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
<WriteLinesToFile
File="$(VersionFileName)"
Overwrite="True"
Lines="
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("$(Version)")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersion("$(Version)")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersion("$(InformationalVersion)")]" />
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="$(VersionFileName)" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Remove definitions of the parameters you specify in the generated file from Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs file.
After that you can specify version by adding a parameter to the msbuild:
msbuild /property:Version=1.2.3 /property:InformationalVersion=1.2.3-dev~commithash .\SolutionFile.sln
Update for .NET Core style .csproj files: If you've come upon this question after having transitioned to the new .csproj format used by .NET Core, you can just set the Version property (no need to to bother with MSBuild tasks).
How I finally got this to work MSBuild version 12 (VS 2013).
Used Nuget to get MSBuildTasks Community package
Edited my .csproj file and added a path to the import the package:
<Import Project="..\packages\MSBuildTasks.1.5.0.235\build\MSBuildTasks.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\MSBuildTasks.1.5.0.235\build\MSBuildTasks.target')"/>
Figured out the Regex to change just the Revision number in the AssemblyInfo.cs file:
(?<=AssemblyFileVersion\("[0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]\.)(\*)
which is not XML compatible, so has to be changed to:
(?<=AssemblyFileVersion\("[0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]\.)(\*)
Uncommented the <Target Name="BeforeBuild"> section and added the following:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<FileUpdate Files="properties\AssemblyInfo.cs"
Regex="(?<=AssemblyFileVersion\("[0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]\.)(\*)"
ReplacementText="$(Revision)" />
</Target>
When running MSBuild added the "Revision" property to the command line e.g.
msbuild.exe myProject.csproj /t:Build /p:Configuration=Release;Revision=12345