How to get the last part of $(MSBuildProjectDirectory) - msbuild

I can't figure out how to get the last part of $(MSBuildProjectDirectory).
For example, if the value was "c:\development\projects\project_branch" then I want just the last part "project_branch".
How can I do this?


In 4.0+ you can use Property Functions to do this in one line.
In this case for example
$([System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($(MSBuildProjectDirectory)))
or you could use a String function.


<Project DefaultTargets="BuildAll" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="GetMSBuildProjectLocalDirectory">
<CreateItem Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)">
<Output ItemName="MSBuildProjectDirectoryMeta" TaskParameter="Include"/>
</CreateItem>
<CreateProperty Value="%(MSBuildProjectDirectoryMeta.Filename)">
<Output PropertyName="LocalDirectory" TaskParameter="Value"/>
</CreateProperty>
</Target>
<Target Name="BuildAll" DependsOnTargets="GetMSBuildProjectLocalDirectory">
<Message Text="$(LocalDirectory)" />
</Target>
</Project>


If you're following best practice, then your project directory will have the same name as your project file. Therefore, you should be able to use:
$(MSBuildProjectName)

Related

Add output or transfer data from child to parent project

I use msbuild in main.proj to build a project like this:
<MSBuild Projects="outs.proj" Targets="Build">
<Output ItemName="CustomOutputs" TaskParameter="TargetOutputs"/>
</MSBuild>
Inside outs.proj I have a custom Target, I need to add an output from this target to get .dll,.pdb,..., and .mycustomfiles
How can I send data from child project to parent project ?
Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd recommend you simply Import the dependant project, however the basic scenario you described can be achieved with Target's Outputs or Returns and corresponding Output's TargetOutputs although there are few caveats as it's designed for incremental builds and not as a data transfer object.
foo.build
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Foo1">
<MSBuild Projects="bar.build">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="Bar" />
</MSBuild>
<Message Text="%(Bar.Identity)" />
</Target>
<Import Project="bar.build" />
<Target Name="Foo2" DependsOnTargets="Bar">
<Message Text="%(Bar.Identity)" />
</Target>
</Project>
bar.build
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Bar" Outputs="#(Bar)">
<ItemGroup>
<Bar Include="**\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
</Project>

Test if an MSBuild property constains a substring

I have a property in an MSBuild project which is a semicolon-separated-list of string values. How can I test if the list constains a particular value?
In the example listing below, I want the target DeployToServer only to be executed if the property $(DCC_Define) constains 'WebDeploy'.
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<DCC_Define>WebDeploy;DEBUG</DCC_Define>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="DeployToServer" Condition="$(DCC_Define) constains 'WebDeploy'">
<Message Text="Do something." />
</Target>
</Project>
I've used a bit of pseudo logic in the #Condition attribute to indicate what I mean. I am using a .NET framework version of 2.0.50727.3655; and MSBuild version of 3.4.30729.1 .
How can I achieve this? I don't have the luxury of being able to upgrade to MSBuild 4.

Well, since you can't use property function you have to get creative.
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<DCC_Define>WebDeploy;DEBUG;WebDeploy</DCC_Define>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="DeployToServer">
<CreateItem Include="$(DCC_Define)">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="DCC_Define" />
</CreateItem>
<!-- Not required since MSBuild doesn't execute targets twice -->
<!-- <CreateProperty Value="True" Condition="%(DCC_Define.Identity) == WebDeploy">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="WebDeploy" />
</CreateProperty> -->
<CallTarget Targets="_DeployToServer" Condition="%(DCC_Define.Identity) == WebDeploy" />
</Target>
<Target Name="_DeployToServer">
<Message Text="Do something." />
</Target>
</Project>

Copy a single file in MSBuild without using Exec or ItemGroup

Is there any way to do this? I just need to copy a single file and thought there may be some syntax for the SourceFiles parameter of the Copy task that means you don't need to define an ItemGroup beforehand, I'd rather stick with ItemGroup than use Exec though.

Copy files also takes a straight propertygroup as input:
<PropertyGroup>
<SourceFile>Some file</SourceFile>
</PropertyGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="$(SourceFile)" DestinationFolder="c:\"/>
Or even just a string
<Copy SourceFiles="Pathtofile" DestinationFolder="c:\"/>

Just put the single file name as the value for "SourceFiles".
Easy-Peezey.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="AllTargetsWrapper" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WorkingCheckout>.</WorkingCheckout>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AllTargetsWrapper">
<CallTarget Targets="CopyItTarget" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CopyItTarget">
<Copy SourceFiles="c:\windows\system.ini" DestinationFolder="$(WorkingCheckout)\"/>
<Error Condition="!Exists('$(WorkingCheckout)\system.ini')" Text="No Copy Is Bad And Sad" />
</Target>
</Project>

For what it's worth, I needed to do the same thing, and wanted to put some version information in the file name. Here is how I did it for a project in $(SolutionDir) that references an executable created by another project in another solution that I can easily express the path to:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<GetAssemblyIdentity AssemblyFiles="$(SolutionDir)..\bin\$(Configuration)\SomeExectuable.exe">
<Output TaskParameter="Assemblies" ItemName="AssemblyVersions" />
</GetAssemblyIdentity>
<CreateProperty Value="$(TargetDir)$(TargetName)-%(AssemblyVersions.Version)$(TargetExt)">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="NewTargetPath" />
</CreateProperty>
<Copy SourceFiles="$(TargetPath)" DestinationFiles="$(NewTargetPath)" />
</Target>

msbuild output remove assemblies

I have some msbuild code that looks something like this:
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild
Projects="#(UnitTestProject)"
Properties="$(BuildProperties)">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="TestAssembly" />
</MSBuild>
</Target>
<Target Name="Test" DependsOnTargets="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<TestAssembly Remove="*.Example.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<xunit Assemblies="#(TestAssembly)" />
</Target>
So I am building all of my unit test projects and caputuring the built dll's using the Output task on the TargetOutputs parameter. The problem is that one of the projects is calling a task that outputs some dll's that I don't want to actually run xunit against.
What's weird though is that the Remove="*.Example.dll" appears to not have any affect at all and xunit is trying to test the assembly anyway.
Why is Remove not working?

Actually I think I figured it out. It appears that the problem resides in the way the relative path is resolved in ItemGroups in the Target vs. outside of a Target. I need to be a little more explicit with my path and then it works. Basically I did this to get it to work:
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild
Projects="#(UnitTestProject)"
Properties="$(BuildProperties)">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="UnitTestOutput" />
</MSBuild>
<ItemGroup>
<TestAssembly Include="#(UnitTestOutput)" Exclude="$(RootTestPath)\**\*.Example.dll" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Test" DependsOnTargets="Build">
<xunit Assemblies="#(TestAssembly)" />
</Target>

In MSBuild, can I use the String.Replace function on a MetaData item?

In MSBuild v4 one can use functions (like string.replace) on Properties. But how can I use functions on Metadata?
I'd like to use the string.replace function as below:
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="#(Files->'%(Filename).Replace(".config","")')" />
</Target>
Unfortunately this outputs as (not quite what I was going for):
log4net.Replace(".config","");ajaxPro.Replace(".config","");appSettings.Replace(".config","");cachingConfiguration20.Replace(".config","");cmsSiteConfiguration.Replace(".config","");dataProductsGraphConfiguration.Replace(".config","");ajaxPro.Replace(".config","");appSettings.Replace(".config","");cachingConfiguration20.Replace(".config","");cmsSiteConfiguration
Any thoughts?

You can do this with a little bit of trickery:
$([System.String]::Copy('%(Filename)').Replace('config',''))
Basically, we call the static method 'Copy' to create a new string (for some reason it doesn't like it if you just try $('%(Filename)'.Replace('.config',''))), then call the replace function on the string.
The full text should look like this:
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="#(Files->'$([System.String]::Copy("%(Filename)").Replace(".config",""))')" />
</Target>
Edit: MSBuild 12.0 seems to have broken the above method. As an alternative, we can add a new metadata entry to all existing Files items. We perform the replace while defining the metadata item, then we can access the modified value like any other metadata item.
e.g.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Files Include="Alice.jpg"/>
<Files Include="Bob.not-config.gif"/>
<Files Include="Charlie.config.txt"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<!--
Modify all existing 'Files' items so that they contain an entry where we have done our replace.
Note: This needs to be done WITHIN the '<Target>' (it's a requirment for modifying existing items like this
-->
<Files>
<FilenameWithoutConfig>$([System.String]::Copy('%(Filename)').Replace('.config', ''))</FilenameWithoutConfig>
</Files>
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="#(Files->'%(FilenameWithoutConfig)')" Importance="high" />
</Target>
</Project>
Result:
D:\temp>"c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" /nologo test.xml
Build started 2015/02/11 11:19:10 AM.
Project "D:\temp\test.xml" on node 1 (default targets).
Build:
Alice;Bob.not-config;Charlie
Done Building Project "D:\temp\test.xml" (default targets).

I needed to do something similar, the following worked for me.
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="#(Files->'%(Filename)'->Replace('.config', ''))" />
</Target>

Those functions works in properties only (as I know). So create target which will perform operation throw batching:
<Target Name="Build"
DependsOnTargets="ProcessFile" />
<Target Name="ProcessFile"
Outputs="%(Files.Identity)">
<PropertyGroup>
<OriginalFileName>%(Files.Filename)</OriginalFileName>
<ModifiedFileName>$(OriginalFileName.Replace(".config",""))</ModifiedFileName>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="$(ModifiedFileName)" Importance="High"/>
</Target>
Do you really need in your example such kind of task? I mean there exists MSBuild Well-known Item Metadata
EDIT: I should specify that this task processes all items in #(Files).

i dont think you can use functions directly with itemgroups and metadata (that would be easy)
However you can use batching:
Taking the ideas from this post:
array-iteration
I was trying to trim an itemgroup to send to a commandline tool (i needed to lose .server off the filename)
<Target Name="ProcessFile" DependsOnTargets="FullPaths">
<ItemGroup>
<Environments Include="$(TemplateFolder)\$(Branch)\*.server.xml"/>
</ItemGroup>
<MSBuild Projects=".\Configure.msbuild"
Properties="CurrentXmlFile=%(Environments.Filename)"
Targets="Configure"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Configure" DependsOnTargets="FullPaths">
<PropertyGroup>
<Trimmed>$(CurrentXmlFile.Replace('.server',''))</Trimmed>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Trimmed: $(Trimmed)"/>
<Exec Command="ConfigCmd $(Trimmed)"/>
</Target>

For MSBuild 12.0, here's an alternative.
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="$([System.String]::Copy("%(Files.Filename)").Replace(".config",""))" />
</Target>

Got the same problem (except with MakeRelative), so I passed with another solution : Using good old CreateItem that take a string and transform to Item :)
<ItemGroup>
<_ToUploadFTP Include="$(PublishDir)**\*.*"></_ToUploadFTP>
</ItemGroup>
<CreateItem Include="$([MSBuild]::MakeRelative('c:\$(PublishDir)','c:\%(relativedir)%(filename)%(_ToUploadFTP.extension)'))">
<Output ItemName="_ToUploadFTPRelative" TaskParameter="Include"/>
</CreateItem>
<FtpUpload Username="$(UserName)"
Password="$(UserPassword)"
RemoteUri="$(FtpHost)"
LocalFiles="#(_ToUploadFTP)"
RemoteFiles="#(_ToUploadFTPRelative->'$(FtpSitePath)/%(relativedir)%(filename)%(extension)')"
UsePassive="$(FtpPassiveMode)" ></FtpUpload>