Copy a single file in MSBuild without using Exec or ItemGroup

execitemgroupmsbuild

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.

Best Answer

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:\"/>

Related Solutions

Visual-studio – MSBuild doesn’t copy references (DLL files) if using project dependencies in solution

I just deal with it like this. Go to the properties of your reference and do this:

Set "Copy local = false"
Save
Set "Copy local = true"
Save

and that's it.

Visual Studio 2010 doesn't initially put: <private>True</private> in the reference tag and setting "copy local" to false causes it to create the tag. Afterwards it will set it to true and false accordingly.

C# – Msbuild copy and flatten with unique file names

I can't provide a solution that just uses msbuild - you could either use msbuildtasks to use the <Add /> task for incrementing a counter.

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
     <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
    <PropertyGroup>
    <FileCounter>0</FileCounter>
</PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <MySourceFiles SilverlightTestResults Include=".\**\*.trx" Exclude=".\TestResults\*"/>
    </ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyFiles">
    <Math.Add Numbers="$(FileCounter);1">
        <Output TaskParameter="FileCounter" PropertyName="FileCounter" />
    </Math.Add>
    <Copy
        SourceFiles="@(MySourceFiles)"
        DestinationFiles="@(MySourceFiles->'.\TestResults\%(Filename)_$(FileCounter)%(Extension)')"
    />
</Target>

However you might do better with a custom task or probably executing a powershell script.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Visual-studio – MSBuild doesn’t copy references (DLL files) if using project dependencies in solution

C# – Msbuild copy and flatten with unique file names

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