I'm trying to setup a virtual directory using msbuild and the msbuild community tasks but cannot find a way how to specify a relative path which is outside the $(MSBuildStartupDirectory).
My project is structured like this:
c:\proj\
src\
website (this is where the virtual dir should point to)
build\
build.proj (this is the msbuild file)
What I'd like to do is something like this (note that $(MSBuildStartupDirectory) points to c:\proj\build):
<WebDirectoryCreate
VirtualDirectoryName="website"
VirtualDirectoryPhysicalPath="$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\..\src\website" />
Unfortunately this doesn't work - the '..' is not resolved and and the virtual dir then points to c:\proj\build\..\src\website.
Can anyone point me a hint how to work with (relative) paths in msbuild?
I tried that and it worked fine for me. I tested this on Windows XP using msbuild 4.0 and community tasks version 1.3.0.504.
I usually use MSBuildProjectDirectory since MSBuildStartupDirectory could be pointing elsewhere depending on how msbuild got executed.
The example below will create the web site and remove the .. entries from the path by using the FullPath metadata.
<ItemGroup>
<WebPath Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\src\website" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CreateWeb">
<Message Text="WebPath=#(WebPath)" Importance="high" />
<Message Text="FullPath=%(WebPath.FullPath)" Importance="high" />
<WebDirectoryCreate
VirtualDirectoryName="website"
VirtualDirectoryPhysicalPath="%(WebPath.FullPath)" />
</Target>
Related
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>$(_PackagePathShortened)</Replace>
</MsDeployReplaceRules>
</ItemGroup>
I also duplicated the same "Copy" tasks here in .pubxml file , play with different events "AfterBuild", "BeforePublish" but seems that all of the just ignoring. I can see the "Extra" DLLs files in the build output directory and all Info Messages on publishing, but not in the final "Super.WebApplication.zip" file !
The solution I found to copy extra files in .Net Core is taken from this documentation
<ItemGroup>
<DotnetPublishFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..somepath..\Extra.dll;....dll" >
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\x86\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</DotnetPublishFiles>
</ItemGroup>
Would really like help with this.
I'm running Team City, have setup a build config, it builds fine. I added a deploy parameter, and that functions almost correctly. The thing is it's trying to deploy my entire c-drive!
This is the config for it:
<Target Name="DeployApp">
<Message Text="Copying application files..." />
<ItemGroup>
<ApplicationFiles Include="$(ApplicationOutputDirectory)\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ApplicationFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(DestinationPath)\% (RecursiveDir)"/>
</Target>
Any help on how to make it only copy the built project to the server?
If $(ApplicationOutputDirectory) isn't set, the Include statement will resolve to \**\*.*, which is the entire current drive (in this case, your C drive)
I am deploying some files on the server. But when I am doing this, build is deleting all the files and folder which are residing at that location. I don't want to delete all the files from the server. I want to exclude one folder (folder name is Temp) from the destination folder. Temp folder should not get deleted while deleting other files. How to do that?
Here is TFS Build Definition
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(DeployEnvironment)' == 'Dev' ">
<DeployPath>\\server1\D$\temp\reports</DeployPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CoreCompileSolution" />
<Target Name="AfterCompile">
<Message Importance ="high" Text="Solution Root: $(SolutionRoot)" />
<Message Importance ="high" Text="Out Dir: $(OutDir)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(RPTFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\Reports\" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterDropBuild" >
<CreateItem Exclude="$(DeployPath)\Temp*.*">
<Output ItemName="PreviousDeployment" TaskParameter="Include" />
</CreateItem>
</Target>
Why are you using a Copy task? I think it is intended to be used for local manipulations during build, rather than deployment (because it does not give you a chance to easily configure behaviour).
I suggest that instead of copy tsak you use one of the following options
Non-web applications - use Robocopy:
/XD dirs [dirs]... : eXclude Directories matching given names/paths.
XF and XD can be used in combination e.g.
ROBOCOPY c:\source d:\dest /XF *.doc *.xls /XD c:\unwanted /S
see this link for usage guide. You either run it from the command line (using <Exec Command="" > task, or employ MBuiild Community Tasksproject which has a nice wrapper.
Web applications: you should use Web Deploy for your deployments. You an either use MSBuild integration (VS 2010 and later, see this blog series for guidance on setup and configure on VS2010 NB: it has been much simplified in VS 2012, but I don't have a link to share at the moment) or run it from command line (prior to VS 2010):
<Exec Command=""$(WebDeployToolPath)" -verb:sync - source:dirPath='$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Published\' -dest:dirPath='$(DeployDirectoryLocalPath)',computerName=$(DeployTargetURL),userName='$(DeployUserName)',password='$(Password)',authType='Basic' -skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='filePath',absolutepath='app_offline.htm' -skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='filePath',absolutepath='logs\\.*' -skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='logs\\.*' -skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='filePath',absolutepath='UserFiles\\.*' -skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='UserFiles\\.*' -verbose -allowUntrusted" />
NB using skip:skipaction='Delete.. to skip removing files and folders.
Update
It looks like I've undestood this a bit incorrect (I supposed, deployment happenned in AfterCompile target, however, as I see now, TFS uses CoreDropBuild target to do the deployment.
So I think, what you need is to override CoreDropBuild target as described: here. (although, I've never tried this).
You can either use Copy task as the author of the thread, or go with Robocopy/webdeploy based on your personal preference.
I'm trying to make a batch file to publish the few ClickOnce application we have in one click. I'm using msbuild for that, and as an example the below command line shows how I'm doing it:
msbuild
MyApp.sln
/t:Publish
/p:Configuration=Release
/p:PublishUrl="C:\Apps\"
/v:normal > Log.txt
(wrapped for easier reading)
when I run the above command it builds and publish the application in the release directory, i.e. bin\release! Any idea why msbuild doesn't respect PublishUrl property in my example above?
PS: I tried also different combinations including remove 'Configuration', use 'Rebuild' and 'PublishOnly' as targets, and remove the the quotation marks but without any success.
You are setting the wrong property. Try PublishDir instead.
You can pass it into MSBuild as you are or you can set it in the project file (or maybe the sln file too, not sure I always use the project file.) like this
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishDir>C:\Dev\Release\$(BuildEnvironment)\</PublishDir>
</PropertyGroup>
I've just done a few blog posts on MsBuild and ClickOnce stuff, check it out you 'should' find them useful...
Some features are done by Visual-Studio and not by the MSBuild-script. So the click-once-deployment behaves differently when it's executed from the command-line.
The ApplicationRevision isn't increased with every build. This works only when is exectued from Visual Studio
In in somecases, the PublishUrl isn't used. Quote from MSDN:
For example, you could set the PublishURL to an FTP path and set the InstallURL to a Web URL. In this case, the PublishURL is only used in the IDE to transfer the files, but not used in the command-line builds. Finally, you can use UpdateUrl if you want to publish a ClickOnce application that updates itself from a separate location from which it is installed.
I've created a special MSBuild-file which does this things. It runs the publish-target and copies then the files to the right location.
An example of the build-file, as requested by alhambraeidos. It basically runs the regular VisualStudio-build and then copies the click-once data to the real release folder. Note that removed some project-specific stuff, so it's maybe broken. Furthermore it doesn't increase the build-number. Thats done by our Continues-Build-Server:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Publish" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- the folder of the project to build -->
<ProjLocation>..\YourProjectFolder</ProjLocation>
<ProjLocationReleaseDir>$(ProjLocation)\bin\Release</ProjLocationReleaseDir>
<ProjPublishLocation>$(ProjLocationReleaseDir)\app.publish</ProjPublishLocation>
<!-- This is the web-folder, which provides the artefacts for click-once. After this
build the project is actually deployed on the server -->
<DeploymentFolder>D:\server\releases\</DeploymentFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Publish" DependsOnTargets="Clean">
<Message Text="Publish-Build started for build no $(ApplicationRevision)" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjLocation)/YourProject.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Release" Targets="Publish"/>
<ItemGroup>
<SchoolPlannerSetupFiles Include="$(ProjPublishLocation)\*.*"/>
<SchoolPlannerUpdateFiles Include="$(ProjPublishLocation)\Application Files\**\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(SchoolPlannerSetupFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DeploymentFolder)\"
/>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(SchoolPlannerUpdateFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DeploymentFolder)\Application Files\%(RecursiveDir)"
/>
<CallTarget Targets="RestoreLog"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Message Text="Clean project:" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjLocation)/YourProject.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Release" Targets="Clean"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I'll put in my 2 cents, this syntax seems to work (right or wrong):
/p:publishUrl="C:\\_\\Projects\\Samples\\artifacts\\Web\\"
For me, the soultion was to escape the path.
Instead of:
/p:PublishUrl="C:\Apps\"
Put:
/p:PublishUrl="C:\\Apps\\"
After MSbuild has built my solution (with an asp.net website), and the webdeployment project has built and put the website in the directory _PublishedWebsites:
c:\mybuilds\buildName\Daily_20090519.3\Release_PublishedWebsites\MyWebsite.
How do I copy this to the fixed directory where IIS points to for the test website?
I have found loads of code snippets, but I cannot seem to find one that will take into account the fact that this directory name changes.
This is pretty easy. You can edit the project and insert something similar to the following.
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputDest>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\OutputCopy\</OutputDest>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<!-- Create an item with all the output files -->
<ItemGroup>
<_OutputFiles Include="$(OutputPath)**\*" Exclude="$(OutputPath)obj\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
<!-- You probably don't want to include the files in the obj folder so exclude them. -->
<Message Text="OutputDest : $(OutputDest)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(_OutputFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(_OutputFiles->'$(OutputDest)%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>
</Target>
Is this what you are looking for?
My Book: Inside the Microsoft Build Engine : Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build
I'm using different technique.
<PropertyGroup>
<BinariesRoot>c:\BinariesForIis\</BinariesRoot>
</PropertyGroup>
The c:\BinariesForIis\ will be used for direct output compiled binaries (before copy to ...\Daily_20090519.3\Release_ ...).