Is there a task in MSBuild that's synonymous with NAnt's <echo> task?
I don't want anything fancy, just a simple message output to stdout.
MsBuild has the Message task built in which will output a string to the console:
<Target ...>
<Message Text="text to output" />
</Target>
By default, MSBuild logs at minimal verbosity which will prevent these messages from being seen. Either increase the verbosity, or set the Message's Importance parameter to high:
<Target ...>
<Message Text="text to output ALWAYS" Importance="high" />
</Target>
Related
TeamCity Configuration:
Below is the Build Number format setting done in TeamCity
%system.BuildVersion%
Where BuildVersion is defined as system parameter.
MSBuildScript
<GetAssemblyIdentity
AssemblyFiles="$(PPTCompiledOutputDirPath)\$(FileNameForAssembly)">
<Output TaskParameter="Assemblies" ItemName="AssemblyIdentity"/>
</GetAssemblyIdentity>
<PropertyGroup>
<Pattern>(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.</Pattern>
<In>%(AssemblyIdentity.Version)</In>
<OutVersion>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</OutVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="$(OutVersion)" />
<Message Text="##teamcity[buildNumber '$(OutVersion)$(BuildCounter)']" />
<Message Text="##teamcity[setParameter name='BuildVersion' value='$(OutVersion)$(BuildCounter)']"/>
I want to update the value for parameter 'BuildVersion' as Assembly Version and Build Counter.
Here I am getting the issue on execution of the Teamcity and execution get cancelled.
The proper way to set the buildNumber is:
<Message Importance="High" Text="##teamcity[buildNumber '$(OutVersion)$(BuildCounter)']" />
My project has a different behaviour locally and on production.
I have concluded that some Tasks in my .vbproj don't get executed locally neither in DEBUG or RELEASE mode. For example, I have a Message in a element, and it doesn't appear in the OUTPUT window after build.
Is my conclusion wrong? Am I missing something here?
doesn't display message in console:
<Target Name="test12345">
<Message Text="This is a test message" Importance="high" />
</Target>
displays message in console:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Message Text="This is a test message" Importance="high" />
</Target>
The AfterBuild name makes it automatically run after a project is built (to be specific, AfterBuild is already defined but meant to be overwritten in custom projects).
When you define a target with a custom name, you need to hook it into the build as well, e.g. by using AfterTargets:
<Target Name="test12345" AfterTargets="Build">
<Message Text="This is a test message" Importance="high" />
</Target>
I have this line in my build script
<Target Name="Deploy" DependsOnTargets="ServicesInstall;SitesTransfer" >
What I want to know is, in this example, what order will the targets get executed. Also, if ServiceInstall has dependencies do they get executed before or after SiteTransfer. In other words is the execution done in a depth first or breadth first manner?
Thanks,
Sachin
As an experiment I tried this:
<Target Name="Deploy" DependsOnTargets="ServicesInstall;SitesTransfer" />
<Target Name="ServicesInstall" DependsOnTargets="ServicesInstallDependency">
<Message Text="ServicesInstall" />
</Target>
<Target Name="ServicesInstallDependency">
<Message Text="ServicesInstallDependency" />
</Target>
<Target Name="SitesTransfer">
<Message Text="SitesTransfer" />
</Target>
and this was the output:
...
1>ServicesInstallDependency:
1> ServicesInstallDependency
1>ServicesInstall:
1> ServicesInstall
1>SitesTransfer:
1> SitesTransfer
...
However, I suspect the exact sequence is undefined. It is not documented on msdn.
In other words, msbuild will only guarantee that the constraints you specify are satisfied. If you need to guarantee SitesTransfer and its dependencies are executed before ServicesInstall, you should make ServicesInstall depend on SitesTransfer.
I'm trying to get simple output by exec task with msbuild:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Test">
<Exec Command="echo test output">
<Output TaskParameter="Outputs" ItemName="Test1" />
</Exec>
<Exec Command="echo test output">
<Output TaskParameter="Outputs" PropertyName="Test2" />
</Exec>
<Message Text="----------------------------------------"/>
<Message Text="#(Test1)"/>
<Message Text="----------------------------------------"/>
<Message Text="$(Test2)"/>
<Message Text="----------------------------------------"/>
</Target>
</Project>
But get next output:
echo test output
test output
echo test output
test output
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
How can I get output by my script?
Good news everyone! You can now capture output from <Exec> as of .NET 4.5.
Like this:
<Exec ... ConsoleToMSBuild="true">
<Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput" PropertyName="OutputOfExec" />
</Exec>
Simply:
Add ConsoleToMsBuild="true" to your <Exec> tag
Capture the output using the ConsoleOutput parameter in an <Output> tag
Finally!
Documentation here
If you want to capture output to an array-like structure and not to a plain string where the output lines are separated by a semicolon, use ItemName instead of PropertyName:
<Exec ... ConsoleToMSBuild="true">
<Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput" ItemName="OutputOfExec" />
</Exec>
I've gotten to the point where I'm so frustrated with the limitations of MSBuild, and the stuff that's supposed to work but doesn't (at least not in every context), that pretty much anytime I need to do anything with MSBuild, I create a custom build task in C#.
If none of the other suggestions are working, then you could certainly do it that way.
You can pipe the output to a file so to speak, and read it back.
echo test output > somefile.txt
With MSBuild, as soon as an error occurs, the execution of the project is stopped unless ContinueOnError=true.
Is there a way to stop the execution of the project without raising an error?
I'd like to have this possibility because I have an existing set of msbuild project files and in some circumstances, I would need to stop processing the projects without raising an error because it is a normal exit point for the process and I don't want the person using the script to think something is wrong.
I know I could just set some property and put all remaining tasks conditional on this but I would like to avoid that.
As you explain it, you want to stop your build under special circumstance without raising an error because it is a normal exit point. Why not create a target doing nothing that will serve as your exit point. Under your special conditions you will call this target.
<target Name="BuildProcess">
<Message Text="Build starts"/>
...
<CallTarget Targets="Exit"
Condition="Special Condition"/>
<CallTarget Targets="Continue"
Condition="!(Special Condition)"/>
...
</target>
<target Name="Continue">
<Message Text="Build continue"/>
</target>
<target Name="Exit">
<!-- This target could be removed -->
<!-- Only used for logging here -->
<Message Text="Build ended because special condition occured"/>
</target>
The way to do this is the create another target to wrap the target you're interested in conditioning.
So if you have a scenario with a target like this:
<Target Name="MainTarget">
command - run under a certain condition
command - run under a certain condition
command - run under a certain condition
command - run under a certain condition
command - run under a certain condition
</Target>
The point is that you want to save having to use the condition statement a whole bunch of times, right?
To address this, you can do this:
<Target Name="MainWrapper" DependsOnTargets="EstablishCondition;MainTarget" />
<Target Name="EstablishCondition">
<SomeCustomTask Input="blah">
<Output PropertyName="TestProperty" TaskParameter="value" />
</SomeCustomTask>
</Target>
<Target Name="MainTarget" Condition="$(TestProperty)='true'">
command
command
command
command
command
</Target>
Eventually found an elegant solution for a similar issue. I just needed to rephrase my concern from "Break/interrupt MSBuild execution" to "Skip the next targets".
<PropertyGroup>
<LastInfoFileName>LastInfo.xml</LastInfoFileName>
<NewInfoFileName>NewInfo.xml</NewInfoFileName>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CheckSomethingFirst" BeforeTargets="DoSomething">
<Message Condition="ConditionForContinue"
Text="Let's carry on with next target" />
<WriteLinesToFile Condition="ConditionForContinue"
File="$(NewInfoFileName)"
Lines="#(SomeText)"
Overwrite="true" />
<Message Condition="!ConditionForContinue"
Text="Let's discard next target" />
<Copy Condition="!ConditionForContinue"
SourceFiles="$(LastInfoFileName)"
DestinationFiles="$(NewInfoFileName)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="DoSomething" Inputs="$(NewInfoFileName)"
Outputs="$(LastInfoFileName)">
<Message Text="DoSomethingMore" />
<Copy SourceFiles="$(NewInfoFileName)"
DestinationFiles="$(LastInfoFileName)" />
</Target>
This works ok with a command like:
msbuild.exe Do.targets /t:DoSomething
where target DoSomething Inputs/Outputs are correctly checked after the CheckSomethingFirst target was executed.