Deploying from MSBuild without overwriting specific files - msbuild

Question

So here's what I want to do:
I want a build script that will xcopy deploy build outputs for a legacy winform app to a given directory. I want to specify a list of files to not overwrite (some config files).
I would rather have the list of files to not overwrite be passed as a parameter than hard code them.
This seems to be really unexpectedly hard. Here's what I have so far:
<!-- A property that is passed a semicolon delimited list of file names -->
<PropertyGroup>
<ProtectedFiles/>
</PropertyGroup>
<--! An ItemGroup to pick up the files>
<ItemGroup>
<FilesToDelete Include=$(DeploymentTargetFolder)\*.* Exclude="#(ProtectedFiles->'$(DeployTargetFolder)\%(identity)')"
<ItemGroup/>
<--! the delete isn't working, so I will stop just with that to keep the code brief -->
<Delete Files="#(FilesToDelete)"/>
The delete just ignores the exclude files and deletes everything
Is there a better way to do this? It doesn't seem too crazy -- I just want to
Delete all files from the target directory, except for the config files
Copy all of the files from the build outputs to the target directory, without overwriting the config files.

Answer 1

The first problem with your particular markup appears to confuse MsBuild $(properties) with MsBuild %(items) and MsBuild #(itemgroups).
ProtectedFiles is a property:
<!-- A property that is passed a semicolon delimited list of file names -->
<PropertyGroup>
<ProtectedFiles/>
</PropertyGroup>
But it's being treated as an Item and wouldn't have any %item.metadata:
<--! An ItemGroup to pick up the files>
<ItemGroup>
<FilesToDelete Include=$(DeploymentTargetFolder)\*.* Exclude="#(ProtectedFiles->'$(DeployTargetFolder)\%(identity)')"
<ItemGroup/>
Save the following markup locally as "foo.xml", then call "msbuild.exe foo.xml" and observe the output:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="foo" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<FilesProp>FileA.txt;FileB.txt</FilesProp>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProtectedFiles Include="FileA.txt" />
<ProtectedFiles Include="FileA.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="foo">
<Message Importance="high" Text="ProtectedFiles ItemGroup: #(ProtectedFiles)" />
<Message Importance="high" Text="ProtectedFiles ItemGroup transform: #(ProtectedFiles->'%(Identity)')" />
<Message Importance="high" Text="FilesProp Property: $(FilesProp)" />
<Message Importance="high" Text="FilesProp Property: #(FilesProp->'%(FilesProp.Identity)')" />
</Target>
</Project>
Will yield the following output:
foo:
ProtectedFiles ItemGroup: FileA.txt;FileA.txt
ProtectedFiles ItemGroup transform: FileA.txt;FileA.txt
FilesProp Property: FileA.txt;FileB.txt
FilesProp Property:
If you're unable to change the design and need to convert a Property comprising a semi-colon delimited list of file paths, use the MsBuild <CreateItem /> task.
Add this markup to foo.xml occurring after the Foo target, then invoke msbuild again, but using the "bar" target (e.g. msbuild.exe foo.xml /t:bar)
<Target Name="bar">
<CreateItem Include="$(FilesProp)">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="TheFiles"/>
</CreateItem>
<Message Text="TheFiles ItemGroup: #(TheFiles)" Importance="high" />
<Message Text="Output each item: %(TheFiles.Identity)" Importance="high" />
</Target>
Will yield the following output:
bar:
TheFiles ItemGroup: FileA.txt;FileB.txt
Output each item: FileA.txt
Output each item: FileB.txt
Next you should rethink some of your assumptions. I don't believe the file extension should be the determining factor when deciding which files to update, rather you should rely on MsBuild's ability to build tasks incrementally allowing it to perform a task only if the inputs are newer than the outputs. You can do this by using an MsBuild <Copy /> task configured to skip unchanged files.
Add this markup to the above Xml file, then modify the $(SourceFolder) and $(TargetFolder) to point to a source folder you'd like to copy recursively, and a destination folder to place the files. Build using "msbuild.exe foo.xml /t:Deployment" and observe the output.
<Target Name="Deployment">
<PropertyGroup>
<SourceFolder>c:\sourcefolder\</SourceFolder>
<TargetFolder>c:\destinationfolder\</TargetFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<CreateItem Include="$(SourceFolder)\**\*.*">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="FilesToCopy" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(FilesToCopy)" DestinationFolder="$(TargetFolder)%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
Without modifying any of the source files, run the command again and note that no files were copied.
Modify a file in the source folder, then run the command again. Notice that only the updated files were copied?
I hope this gets you on the right track.

Answer 2

There seems to be an already existing post, similar to this. Please check this Trying to exclude certain extensions doing a recursive copy (MSBuild)