How to handle post-build events in an Azure pipeline?

Question

I can build a solution locally and in one project I have post-build events:

xcopy "$(SolutionDir)pluginfolder\bin\Debug\net48\pluginname.*" "$(TargetDir)" /Y

I do this because the target project doesn't have a reference to the plugin projects.

Now I'm trying to move to an Azure pipeline. I created an MSBuild task that builds just the target project and not the complete solution, and I get the following error on running in a self-hosted agent:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(5266,5): Error MSB3073: The command "xcopy "Undefinedpluginfolder\bin\Debug\net48\pluginname.*" "C:\agent_work\5\s\myproj\bin" /Y ended with Code 4.

What is the best approach to solve this issue?

Hugh Lin Hugh Lin · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-05T09:02:25

"Undefinedpluginfolder\bin\Debug\net48\pluginname.*"

The $(SolutionDir) is recognized as Undefined, this is because msbuild has no knowledge about the solution when building a single project.

As workaround, you can insert the following script above the script of PostBuild event. Something like:

  <PropertyGroup>
    <ProjectFolder>$([System.IO.Directory]::GetParent($(ProjectDir)))</ProjectFolder>
    <MySolutionDir>$([System.IO.Directory]::GetParent($(ProjectFolder)))\</MySolutionDir>
    It's recommended to add my script and PostBuildEvent in same propertyGroup
    <PostBuildEvent>echo $(MySolutionDir)</PostBuildEvent> 
  </PropertyGroup>

Command line:

xcopy "$(MySolutionDir)pluginfolder\bin\Debug\net48\pluginname.*" "$(TargetDir)" /Y

You can refer to this ticket with similar issue.

How to handle post-build events in an Azure pipeline?

1 Answers