Using MSBuildExtensionPack from a specific location (DLL reference) - msbuild

I am trying to use MSBuildExtensionPack and read that I have to import the project by using:
$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)..\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks
$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)....\Common\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks
It should not be necessary for you to include the above type of import in your usage of the tasks. If you have used the default installation path, simply use the following imports:
3.5 ---
4.0 ---
I have not installed the extension pack on the build server, rather I have copied the DLL into a specifc location and trying to access it by following code:
After trigerring the build using TeamCity, I get following error:
error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Apps\Teamcity\buildAgent 1\work\vb82348r312dsd33\thirdparty\tools\MsBuildExtensions" was not found. Confirm that the path in the declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
If I look into the build machine, I can find the folder and all the files in it. Not sure why I am getting this error.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"
ToolsVersion="4.0"
DefaultTargets="StopIT">
<Import Project=".\thirdparty\tools\MsBuildExtensions"/>
<Target Name="StopIT">
<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Computer.WindowsService TaskAction="Stop" ServiceName="AppServices" MachineName="MyMachineName"/>
</Target>
</Project>
Please provide your suggestion

You need to change your import from
<Import Project=".\thirdparty\tools\MsBuildExtensions"/>
to
<Import Project=".\thirdparty\tools\MsBuildExtensions\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks"/>
It is not enough to name the folder, you have to name every file (.proj, .target, .tasks) that should be imported, in your case the MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks
The tasks file contains some kind of mapping between task names and the assembly where to find them.

Related

How to ship the stylecop.json and custom.ruleset files with a NuGet package in VS2017

At the moment we are switching from VS2015 to VS2017. One of our upgrade steps is to switch from stylecop to the new Stylecop.Analyzer package. The new Stylecop is using 2 files. The stylecop.json and the Stylecop.ruleset.
The target: I want to provide the stylecop files as a custom nuget package. But I dont know how to create the needed .csproj entries.
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
...
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>packages\My.StyleCop.1.0.0-pre15\RuleSet\My.StyleCop.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
</PropertyGroup>
...
<ItemGroup>
<AdditionalFiles Include="packages\My.StyleCop.1.0.0-pre15\Config\stylecop.json">
<Link>stylecop.json</Link>
</AdditionalFiles>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
In the past, there was the possibility to use a install.ps1 script to do this stuff. But with NuGet 3. (or 4.) the install scripts are obsolete and will be ignored.
I already tried to use My.StyleCop.targets:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<AdditionalFiles Include="packages\My.StyleCop.1.0.0-pre17\Config\stylecop.json">
<Link>stylecop.json</Link>
</AdditionalFiles>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
But here I have some issues, too. Since NuGet 3. (or 4.) there is no solution wide package folder and I dont know any variable or placeholder I can use here to get a absolute or relative path to my package.
You can add .props or .targets files to the build folder in your packages and they will be imported to the projects.
On the .props file, you can use the MSBuildThisFileDirectory MSBuild variable that represents the folder where that file is located.
Thanks to Paulo.
How I did it:
This is the structure of my NuGet package.
The solution is quiet easy. You need to create to files. A .props and a .targets file named like the NuGet package and place them in the build folder of your package.
In these MSBuild files you can use the $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory) variable to get the path of your NuGet package.
MSBuildThisFileDirectory = C:\Users\UserName\.nuget\packages\sig.stylecop\1.0.0-pre23\build\
My SIG.StyleCop.props file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\..\RuleSet\SIG.combiLink.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
My SIG.StyleCop.targets file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<AdditionalFiles Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\..\Config\stylecop.json">
<Link>stylecop.json</Link>
</AdditionalFiles>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Cause of the structure of my package i need to navigate (..) into the Config and into the RuleSet folder.
The variable $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory) already includes the backslash at the end. It is important to omit the backslash when you reference the ruleset and the stylecop.json file:
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\RuleSet\SIG.combiLink.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
<AdditionalFiles Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\Config\stylecop.json">
With the double backslash I experienced two strange problems in Visual Studio 2017:
Unit tests rebuild the code each time I start them, even without any code change
The IDE shows many StyleCop errors in the Error List window and shows red marks in the scroll bar even for rules that are explicitly disabled in the rule set.

Wildcard import using Import Tag

Is it possible to do a wildcard import like:
<Import Project = "*.settings" />
Like we normal do with items?:
<ItemGroup>
<Files Include = "*.cs"/>
</ItemGroup>
We have been trying but we get the following error:
error MSB4025: The project file could not be loaded. Root element is missing.
*.settings files simply contain a list of property values that we build using some other tool. It contains no targets at all. Basically, we want to inject our build project with property values generated from another tool and we don't want to manually (or automatically) update our build project file with new values.
It's definitely ok to import multiple files like that. The problem is not with the Import but as the error says with your imported project. The error basically means one or more of your .settings files contain invalid xml. The files must look like this for example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<A>a</A>
<B>a</B>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

MSBuild: Unable to find the path

I am using following script within my build file. I have installed MSBuildExtensionPack on the build server.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"
ToolsVersion="4.0"
DefaultTargets="StopIT">
<Import Project=".\thirdparty\tools\MsBuildExtensions"/>
<Target Name="StopIT">
<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Computer.WindowsService TaskAction="Stop" ServiceName="AppServices" MachineName="MyMachineName"/>
</Target>
</Project>
After running the script, I am getting following error:
The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\ExtensionPack\4.0\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks" was not found. Confirm that the path in the declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
If i look into the machine, I can find this file under: "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\ExtensionPack\4.0\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks" location.
How can I inform the build script to look into correct path.
To answer my own question, I installed the 32 bit version which by default get installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\ExtensionPack\4.0 location. I am not sure if there is an explicit way to specify another path.
Thank you

Where to place dlls for unmanaged libraries?

I am trying to create a Nuget package for a library that depends on ghostscript and therefore references gsdll32.dll - an unmanaged library. I can't just included that a standard dll reference. Where do I put this in the nuget directory structure?
Add a build folder to the package and, if the package for example has the id MyPackage, add a MSBuild target file called MyPackage.targets to this folder. It is important that the .targets file has the same name as the .nuspec file. In the .nuspec file you must have a section like this:
<files>
<file src="lib\*.*" target="lib" />
<file src="build\MyPackage.targets" target="build" />
</files>
This will add an MSBuild element in the project file pointing to the .targets file.
Furthermore, to only register the managed dlls, add a section like this:
<references>
<reference file="MyManaged.dll" />
</references>
The .targets file should look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CopyMyPackageFiles" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<MyPackageFiles Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\lib\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MyPackageFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)" >
</Copy>
</Target>
</Project>
Now, all files - including unmanaged files - will be copied to the project output folder (e.g. \bin\debug) after the build.
The above reference can work, but it actually modifies your post build event to push files over, which may not actually fix your issue if you have the situation we did.
The issue we were having was a dependent DLL could not be registered, but had to exist side by side with another DLL which needed to be registered by nuget so it needed to exist in the lib directory but not be registered.
The nuspec reference now allows you to specify which DLLs in the lib directory get explicitly registered in the visual studio project now, you simply need to add into your nuspec file in the metadata area an explicit references list (if this does not exist the default behavior of nuget is to attempt to register everything under lib).
Here is an example nuspec file of what I mean:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
<metadata>
<id>SomePackageID</id>
<version>1.0.1</version>
<title>Some Package Title</title>
<authors>Some Authors</authors>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>Blah blah blah.</description>
<references>
<reference file="ceTe.DynamicPDF.Rasterizer.20.x86.dll" />
</references>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="\\SomeNetworkLocation\ceTe.DynamicPDF.Rasterizer.20.x86.dll" target="lib\ceTe.DynamicPDF.Rasterizer.20.x86.dll" />
<file src="\\SomeNetworkLocation\DPDFRast.x86.dll" target="lib\DPDFRast.x86.dll" />
</files>
</package>
As you can see, ceTe.DynamicPDF.Rasterizer.20.x86.dll needs to be registered, but DPDFRast.x86.dll simply needs to exist in that directory to support the other DLL and won't be registered but through some dynamic referencing magic will ultimately be copied over into the destination bin directory anyway because visual studio sees that the first DLL is dependent upon the second.
Here is the original nuspec reference.
Response on the Nuget forum: http://nuget.codeplex.com/discussions/352689
pranavkm:
The SQLCE package has a similar issue that we handle via PS
scripts. Checkout out the scripts at
https://bitbucket.org/davidebbo/nugetpackages/src/1cba18b864f7/SqlServerCompact/Tools.
I largely got this to work using Lars Michael's method, but one thing I needed to add comes from James Eby's answer. Visual Studio was trying to register all the dll's in my lib directory, so I added a references element to the metadata in the nuspec file to tell it to only register the managed dll:
<references>
<reference file="FANNCSharp.dll" />
</references>
Also in
<MyPackageFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\Packages\MyPackage\lib\*.*"/>
I first tried the id of my package FANNCSharp-x64, but it needed the full package name: FANNCSharp-x64.0.1.4.
One problem I had was that the packages path wasn't always in the same place relative to the project file. The following worked for me:
Within the NuGet package, place your unmanaged DLLs in the lib\native folder.
Add the following script to the tools folder:
install.ps1
#This script creates or updates a PackagesPath property in the project file
param($installPath, $toolsPath, $package, $project)
$project.Save()
#Load the csproj file into an xml object
[xml] $xml = Get-Content -path $project.FullName
#grab the namespace from the project element
$nsmgr = New-Object System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager -ArgumentList $xml.NameTable
$nsmgr.AddNamespace('a',$xml.Project.GetAttribute("xmlns"))
#find or create the property
$property = $xml.Project.SelectSingleNode("//a:PropertyGroup//a:PackagesPath", $nsmgr)
if (!$property)
{
$property = $xml.CreateElement("PackagesPath", $xml.Project.GetAttribute("xmlns"))
$propertyGroup = $xml.CreateElement("PropertyGroup", $xml.Project.GetAttribute("xmlns"))
$propertyGroup.AppendChild($property)
$xml.Project.InsertBefore($propertyGroup, $xml.Project.ItemGroup[0])
}
#find the relative path to the packages folder
$absolutePackagesPath = (get-item $installPath).parent.FullName
push-location (split-path $project.FullName)
$relativePackagesPath = Resolve-Path -Relative $absolutePackagesPath
pop-location
#set the property value
$property.InnerText = $relativePackagesPath
#save the changes.
$xml.Save($project.FullName)
Add a targets file to the build folder. (Change "MyPackage" to the name of your package). Using a unique name for the target, like "CopyMyPackage", avoids conflicts with other packages trying to define the "AfterBuild" target. This targets file makes use of the $(PackagesPath) property defined by the above script.
MyPackage.targets
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CopyMyPackage" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<MyPackageSourceFiles Include="$(PackagesPath)\MyPackage.*\lib\native\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MyPackageSourceFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)" >
</Copy>
</Target>
</Project>
Finally, add a "MyPackageReadMe.txt" to the Content folder. This will enable the package to install.
See also: http://alski.net/post/2013/05/23/Using-NuGet-25-to-deliver-unmanaged-dlls.aspx
For .NET Core this is pretty straightforward if you know what runtime platform your native code targets. You might notice a folder called "runtimes" in the .NET Core build folder under the bin tree when you build. It looks something like this:
These folders are designed to hold any platform specific stuff, including unmanaged/native DLLs.
In your NuGet package add a the following under the "Files" section:
<file src="[source path for file in package]" target="runtimes\[platform]\native\[file name]" />
When executing the application, the runtime environment will look for unmanaged dlls in the corresponding platform directory.
If you want to target multiple platforms, just add another file entry for each platform.

error MSB4064: The "OverwriteReadOnlyFiles" parameter is not supported by the "Copy" task

I am using Msbuild 4.0. When i was using Msbuild 3.5 OverwriteReadonlyfiles worked without any issue.
But today when i was trying to use the copy task i am getting this issue.
error MSB4064:
The "OverwriteReadOnlyFiles" parameter is not supported
by the "Copy" t ask. Verify the parameter exists on the task, and it
is a settable public instance property.
This is my target which has copy task
<Target Name="CopyBOM">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(BOM)" DestinationFolder="%(BOM.Destination)" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true">
<Output TaskParameter="CopiedFiles" ItemName="CopyBOMFiles" />
</Copy>
<Message Text="Copied to BOM: #(CopyBOMFiles)"/>
</Target>
Following is the itemgroup i am using in my properties file
<BOM Include="..\..\..\Release\CoreDeployment.msi">
<Destination>..\..\..\Core\BOM\Comp1</Destination>
</BOM>
I am having multiple properties file, I have verified that in all the place Toolsversion=4.0 is placed.
Has any one faced this? Any way is there to solve this?
I'm using OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" without issues. Try to add ToolsVersion="4.0" into your Project tag:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0">
You are most likely dealing with a ToolsVersion issue, even though you say you've checked all your files and their imports. Omitting the ToolsVersion from a file will cause it to drop to a lower version, so if all you did was search for "ToolsVersion" you may have missed a file where it wasn't declared on the <Project> node at all.
Run a command line build with diagnostic level logging, with the following additional parameters:
> msbuild My.proj /fl /flp:v=diag;logfile=My.proj.diagnostic.log
After the build fails, open the log file, seach for "MSB4064" then backtrack up the file looking for anything specifying the 2.0 framework.