I have the following setup: ASP.Net MVC .Net 4.0 solution with 5 projects in it, and several solution configurations (Site1-Stage, Site1-Live, Site2-Stage, etc). The reason for this is simple - we deploy same codebase to multiple servers with different config settings.
To manage these configurations, I use the approach described by Troy Hunt in his You're deploying it wrong! TeamCity, Subversion & Web Deploy part 1: Config transforms article. In 2 words - I do NOT have web.config in my SVN repo, instead I have Web.Base.Config, Web.Site1-Stage.Config, etc and XmlTransformation task in project AfterBuild target. During the build, the required web.config is generated based on selected configuration:
<UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<TransformXml Source="Web.Base.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
Here comes the problem: when I'm execute MSBuild like this:
msbuild MySolution.sln /P:configuration=Site1-Stage /t:rebuild
all goes well, web.config is properly generated for the Site1-Stage configuration. However, if I run this command:
msbuild MySolution.sln /P:configuration=Site1-Stage /t:rebuild /P:DeployOnBuild=True
I get the following error:
"MySolution.sln" (rebuild target) (1) -> "MySolution\MyWebProj.csproj"
(Rebuild target) (3) -> (PreTransformWebConfig target) -> C:\Program
Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.5\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets(1399,5):
error : Copying file Web.config to
obj\Site1-Stage\TransformWebConfig\original\Web.config failed. Could
not find file 'Web.config'. [MySolution\MyWebProj.csproj]
I tried to explicitly add "AfterBuild" target into MSBuild command line:
msbuild MySolution.sln /P:configuration=Site1-Stage /t:rebuild,AfterBuild /P:DeployOnBuild=True
but it resulted in the same error.
Why do I need this: it's a very isolated example, and in reality I'm trying to setup automated publishing from TeamCity CI server. I think if I add new build step with "Visual Studio (sln)" runner BEFORE my current publishing step, that would work, it will first rebuild the project (and generate web.config) - and then publish. However, i have lots of publishing steps (around 20 now) and I would like to avoid that. My understanding is that "Publish" process does the build as part of it, so I would like to "reuse" that.
Question is: how should I modify my MSBuild command line to force config transformation to happen?
Thank you.
Maybe use "BeforeBuild"?
BTW do you have web.config included in csproj? I believe most publish activities relies on items in project rather than in folder. You can include web.config in project, while still have excluded it from source control.
Related
The dotnet publish command for my ASP.NET Core 3.1 project creates a web.config file in my publish/ directory. I don't want this file to be generated (or copied to that folder, at least) - it is never to be used with IIS at all.
When I took a look at the command output with verbosity increased, I found the following text:
Target "_TransformWebConfig" in file "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.200\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish\targets\TransformTargets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish.TransformFiles.targets" from project "C:\repos\reportweb\reportweb\reportweb.csproj" (target "_AspNetCoreProjectSystemPostPublish" depends on it):
Using "TransformWebConfig" task from assembly "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.200\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish\targets\..\tools\netcoreapp2.1\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish.Tasks.dll".
Task "TransformWebConfig"
Configuring the following project for use with IIS: 'C:\repos\reportweb\reportweb\bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\linux-x64\publish\'
Updating web.config at 'C:\repos\reportweb\reportweb\bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\linux-x64\publish\web.config'
Configuring project completed successfully
Done executing task "TransformWebConfig".
Done building target "_TransformWebConfig" in project "reportweb.csproj".
Is it somehow possible to configure my project to skip the _TransformWebConfig Target or TransformWebConfig Task - or to use another way to skip the generation? I know I could make MSBuild delete the file afterwards, but having this disabled seems less hacky to me.
You can control this with the IsWebConfigTransformDisabled MSBuild property:
To prevent transformations of the web.config file, set the MSBuild property $(IsWebConfigTransformDisabled):
dotnet publish /p:IsWebConfigTransformDisabled=true
Because this is an MSBuild property, you can also set it in the .csproj, instead of passing it as a command-line argument:
<PropertyGroup>
<IsWebConfigTransformDisabled>true</IsWebConfigTransformDisabled>
</PropertyGroup>
In the past we have used a combination of TeamCity and MsDeploy to deploy our projects. We've recently moved into using Octopus deploy, and TeamCity purely for the Build. This meant changing the build process in TeamCity and removing any references to MsDeploy.
In the past we've used confiiguration such as the below in our project file which included additional files and directories:
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
CustomCollectFiles;
$(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
</CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<UCommerceAssemblies Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\..\Resources\UCommerce\ucommerce\*" />
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="%(UCommerceAssemblies.Identity)">
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\uCommerce\%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
However this now doesnt seem to get invoked whatsoever. It appears (to me anyhow) that these pipelines were created for use with Publishing from Visual Studio, or using MSDeploy, however we need to just include these files in the directory either before or after the build has taken place. There seems to be tons of references across the web about doing this, however they all refer to using MSDeploy.
Can anyone shed any light on how I can include additional files/directories in the build without using MSDeploy?
Thanks for your time in advance
dotdev
As you are using Octopus for deployment you only need to include additional files (reference assemblies, etc.) into code package sent to Octopus.
To do this one needs to use OctoPack for project packaging. Then add .nuspec file into the project, for example this line in .nuspec will add all files from some different location into the .nupkg package under "bin\additional" and will be deployed correctly by octopus.
Nuspec docs
Similar solution is discuses here.
Our continuous delivery set-up, until recently, was delivering Service Fabric packages using the following command:
msbuild SFApp.sfproj /t:Package
This was necessary because the target Package is unavailable at the solution level. I.e. The command
msbuild SFSolution.sln /t:Package
Fails, as the target does not exist.
As our dependency mesh grows, it gets to a point in which most interfaces projects will not build without a solution file (to work around the "OutputPath does not exist" red herring). There seems to be a way to do that according to this answer. Unfortunately, while targets like Clean work…
msbuild SFSolution.sln /t:SFApplication:Clean
(…snip…)
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
…the target Package won't!
msbuild SFSolution.sln /t:SFApplication:Package
(…snip…)
Build FAILED.
"SFSolution.sln" (SFApplication:Package target) (1) -> SFSolution.sln.metaproj :
error MSB4057: The target "SFApplication:Package" does not exist in the
project. [SFSolution.sln]
0 Warning(s)
1 Error(s)
(Solution/project folders/names omitted/paraphrased for clarity. I can provide the actual logs if necessary.)
So the question is: how could I, using the Command Line, build one project using the Package target and the solution file?
Or how can I otherwise package a Service Fabric application from the command line?
It's bad idea to compile sfproj file(and any other project file) without sln, because it can bring wrong content to its output from referenced projects. Only solution has a knowledge about what project to compile in what configuration.
To make Package similar to "Right Click->Package" in VS:
Just add to your sfproj the following target
<Target Name="ForcePackageTarget" AfterTargets="Build" Condition="'$(ForcePackageTarget)' =='true'">
<CallTarget Targets="Package"/>
</Target>
And then running normal build on solution you may trigger the package step by /p:ForcePackageTarget=true :
msbuild yoursolution.sln /t:Build /p:ForcePackageTarget=true /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
Actually it performs two-in-one steps, build and package, with respect to Solution Configurations on all referenced projects
MSBuild only supports a small set of target names that can be specified at the solution level. As you've discovered, Package is not one of them. You'll need to execute two separate calls to MSBuild: one which builds the solution and one which calls the Package target on the sfproj. The Package target of an sfproj has a dependency on the Build target so it will ensure that the sfproj and its project dependencies are built.
I had the same problem and fixed it by changing the Platform in the failing projects to explicitly build for x64.
Click Build > Configuration Manager and make sure that the assemblies are compiled for the x64 platform, that should also set the Output Paths in the corresponding .csproj files.
The actual command line action that is being executed is this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\amd64\msbuild.exe" "C:\agent\_work\1\s\Project\SFProject.sfproj" /t:Package /p:platform="x64" /p:configuration="release" /p:VisualStudioVersion="14.0"
Use the below script.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0> msbuild "Fabric.sfproj" /t:Package /p:Configuration=Release
Service fabric requires Target to be set in x64 platform,
So change all you reference projects target to x64 platform.
you can do this by using configuration properties of your solution. If x64 is not listed in 'Configuration Properties' click configuration manager in the same window and under platform column for the required project add new project platform as x64.
Hope this works for you.
We have had the exact same problem as you had and I have been looking around for a solution all over the web and did some experiments. Those are the steps that worked for us:
Don't manually add a target anywhere as suggested by other answers on StackOverflow. Not necessary. Especially in a CI environment, you want to build the projects separately anyways.
Prepare the projects in the Solution: Change the target platform for all projects to x64
Build the application
msbuild.exe SFAplication.xproj /p:Configuration=Release /target:rebuild
Package the App
msbuild.exe SFAplication.sfproj /p:Configuration=Release /target:Package
I am trying to use MSDeploy to deploy an MVC project to the server using TeamCity. When I do this on my computer in powershell, using the following command:
msbuild.exe .\mvc.csproj /p:PublishProfile=DevServer /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0
/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:Password=MyPassword /p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=true
It builds the project and deploys it to the server (info defined in the DevServer publish profile) perfectly. The output shows an MSDeployPublish section at the end, in which I see text like Starting Web deployment task from source... and then with rows telling me what files are updated, etc.
When I run this on TeamCity, using an MSBuild Build step, on the same file, with the same parameters (from the same working directory) it builds the project but does not publish it. Instead it has the regular output from a build process (CoreCompile, _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal, GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItems, CopyFilesToOutputDirectory) but then does not actually go and publish anything.
What changes to I need to make to the setup in TeamCity to get it to publish deploy in the same way that it works using MSBuild from my computer?
(TeamCity 7.1, MSBuild 4.0, WebDeploy 3.0, Visual Studio 12, IIS 7. Related to my previous question)
We do our WebDeploys with a TeamCity MSBuild step configured as follows:
Build File Path: Server.csproj
Command Line Parameters:
/p:Configuration=%configuration%
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://%web.deploy.server%:8172/MsDeploy.axd
/p:DeployIisAppPath=%web.deploy.site%
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
/p:Username=
/p:AuthType=NTLM
We use integrated authentication; change as necessary to fit your scheme. The value of this, I think, is that it builds everything from scratch and doesn't rely on a pre-built package. From the gist you posted I noticed that you do some DB publishing, we don't use WebDeploy for that so I can't offer any guidance there. Hope this helps.
I use MSBuild.exe to package to zip, and MSdeploy.exe to deploy in separate steps.
To deploy the package.zip file on the command line:
"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V2\msdeploy.exe" -verb:sync
-source:package="C:\Build\MyAppName.Debug.zip"
-dest:auto,wmsvc=webservername,username=webdeploy,password=*******
-allowUntrusted=true
This command is also worth explaining in detail:
-verb:sync : makes the web site sync from the source to the destination
-source:package="C:\Build\MyAppName.Debug.zip" : source is an MSBuild zip file package
-dest:auto,wmsvc=webservername : use the settings in the package file to deploy to the server. The user account is an OS-level account with permission. The hostname is specified, but not the IIS web site name (which is previously specified in the MSBuild project file in the project properties).
You can modify parameters based on your configuration. I like it this way because with separate steps, its easier to debug problems.
Use TeamCity build step and the command line runner.
Update:
If you want an example of how to build the ZIP package using MSBuild, try something like this:
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe"
MyWebApp/MyWebApp/MyWebApp.csproj
/T:Package
/P:Configuration=Debug;PackageLocation="C:\Build\MyWebApp.Debug.zip"
This should work the same on your local PC as well as on the CI server.
Here are the config settings that finally worked for me:
/p:Configuration=CONFIG-NAME
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=http://SITE-URL/MsDeployAgentService
/p:username="USERNAME"
/p:password=PASSWORD
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
/P:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:DeployIisAppPath=SITE-URL
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
/p:IgnoreDeployManagedRuntimeVersion=True
I had exactly the same issue! I've posted the solution I used over at: MsBuild not finding publish profile
Basics were:
Install the Azure SDK 1.8 on the build server
Force the /P:PublishProfileRootFolder value to ensure MSBuild can locate the publish profile
Ensure that you have the Microsoft Web Developer Tools feature installed for Visual Studio. This was missing on my build agent but once I added it the TeamCity build worked just fine.
This can happen when the build target paths are missing from your MSBuild directory. Instead of trying to get those to line up on every developer machine, install the targets from the Nuget. That way it will always be the same for everyone, regardless of how their machine is setup.
I am trying to use MSBuild to build a solution with a specified target platform (I need both binaries, x86 and x64). This is how I tried it:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5>MsBuild SolutionPath\Solution.sln /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform="x86"
However the build always fails if the platform is different from "Any CPU". What am I doing wrong?
This is the while output MSBuild prints:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5>MsBuild
SolutionPath\Solution.sln /t:Rebuild
/p:Configuration=Release
/p:Platform="x86" Microsoft (R) Build
Engine Version 3.5.30729.1 [Microsoft
.NET Framework, Version
2.0.50727.3082] Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights
reserved.
Build started 1.7.2010 8:28:10.
Project "SolutionPath\Solution.sln" on
node 0 (Rebuild targe t(s)).
SolutionPath\Solution.sln : error
MSB4126: The specified sol ution
configuration "Release|x86" is
invalid. Please specify a valid
solution c onfiguration using the
Configuration and Platform properties
(e.g. MSBuild.exe Solution.sln
/p:Configuration=Debug
/p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those
prope rties blank to use the default
solution configuration. Done Building
Project "SolutionPath\Solution.sln"
(Rebuild t arget(s)) -- FAILED.
Build FAILED.
"SolutionPath\Solution.sln" (Rebuild
target) (1) ->
(ValidateSolutionConfiguration target)
-> SolutionPath\Solution.sln : error MSB4126: The specified s olution
configuration "Release|x86" is
invalid. Please specify a valid
solution configuration using the
Configuration and Platform properties
(e.g. MSBuild.ex e Solution.sln
/p:Configuration=Debug
/p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those
pro perties blank to use the default
solution configuration.
0 Warning(s)
1 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.03
If I try to build it for x86/x64 with devenv it works perfectly, however I am trying to set up a build server without installing all the necessary versions of Visual Studio. By the way, if there is a better free tool (that supports .NET framework 4) out there, I'd love to hear about it.
In MSBuild or Teamcity use command line
MSBuild yourproject.sln /property:Configuration=Release /property:Platform=x64
or use shorter form:
MSBuild yourproject.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
However you need to set up platform in your project anyway, see the answer by Julien Hoarau.
If you want to build your solution for x86 and x64, your solution must be configured for both platforms. Actually you just have an Any CPU configuration.
How to check the available configuration for a project
To check the available configuration for a given project, open the project file (*.csproj for example) and look for a PropertyGroup with the right Condition.
If you want to build in Release mode for x86, you must have something like this in your project file:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x86' ">
...
</PropertyGroup>
How to create and edit the configuration in Visual Studio
(source: microsoft.com)
(source: msdn.com)
(source: msdn.com)
How to create and edit the configuration (on MSDN)
If you're trying to do this from the command line, you may be encountering an issue where a machine-wide environment variable 'Platform' is being set for you and working against you. I can reproduce this if I use the VS2012 Command window instead of a regular windows Command window.
At the command prompt type:
set platform
In a VS2012 Command window, I have a value of 'X64' preset. That seems to interfere with whatever is in my solution file.
In a regular Command window, the 'set' command results in a "variable not defined" message...which is good.
If the result of your 'set' command above returns no environment variable value, you should be good to go.
Hopefully this helps someone out there.
For platform I was specifying "Any CPU", changed it to "AnyCPU" and that fixed the problem.
msbuild C:\Users\Project\Project.publishproj /p:Platform="AnyCPU" /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=local /p:Configuration=Debug
If you look at your .csproj file you'll see the correct platform name to use.
For VS2017 and 2019... with the modern core library SDK project files, the platform can be changed during the build process. Here's an example to change to the anycpu platform, just before the built-in CoreCompile task runs:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" >
<Target Name="SwitchToAnyCpu" BeforeTargets="CoreCompile" >
<Message Text="Current Platform=$(Platform)" />
<Message Text="Current PlatformTarget=$(PlatformName)" />
<PropertyGroup>
<Platform>anycpu</Platform>
<PlatformTarget>anycpu</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="New Platform=$(Platform)" />
<Message Text="New PlatformTarget=$(PlatformTarget)" />
</Target>
</Project>
In my case, I'm building an FPGA with BeforeTargets and AfterTargets tasks, but compiling a C# app in the main CoreCompile. (partly as I may want some sort of command-line app, and partly because I could not figure out how to omit or override CoreCompile)
To build for multiple, concurrent binaries such as x86 and x64: either a separate, manual build task would be needed or two separate project files with the respective <PlatformTarget>x86</PlatformTarget> and <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget> settings in the example, above.
When you define different build configurations in your visual studio solution for your projects using a tool like ConfigurationTransform, you may want your Teamcity build, to build you a specified build configuration. You may have build configurations e.g., Debug, Release, Dev, UAT, Prod etc defined. This means, you will have MSBuild Configuration transformation setup for the different configurations. These different configurations are usually used when you have different configurations, e.g. different database connection strings, for the different environment. This is very common because you would have a different database for your production environment from your playground development environment.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, please see the image below how you would specify multiple build configurations in Teamcity.
In the commandline input text box, specify as below
/p:OutputPath=Publish;Configuration=Dev
Here, I have specified two commandline build configurations/arguments OutputPath and build Configuration with values Publish and Dev respectively, but it could have been, UAT or Prod configuration. If you want more, simply separate them by semi-colon,;
There is an odd case I got in VS2017, about the space between ‘Any’ and 'CPU'.
this is not about using command prompt.
If you have a build project file, which could call other solution files. You can try to add the space between Any and CPU, like this (the Platform property value):
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionToBuild2)" Properties ="Configuration=$(ProjectConfiguration);Platform=Any CPU;Rerun=$(MsBuildReRun);" />
Before I fix this build issue, it is like this (ProjectPlatform is a global variable, was set to 'AnyCPU'):
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionToBuild1)" Properties ="Configuration=$(ProjectConfiguration);Platform=$(ProjectPlatform);Rerun=$(MsBuildReRun);" />
Also, we have a lot projects being called using $ (ProjectPlatform), which is 'AnyCPU' and work fine. If we open proj file, we can see lines liket this and it make sense.
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU'">
So my conclusion is,
'AnyCPU' works for calling project files, but not for calling solution files,
for calling solution files, using 'Any CPU' (add the space.)
For now, I am not sure if it is a bug of VS project file or MSBuild.
I am using VS2017 with VS2017 build tools installed.
In Visual Studio 2019, version 16.8.4, you can just add
<Prefer32Bit>false</Prefer32Bit>