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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-01T21:03:31+00:00

Below is a portion of a MSBuild file that I’m working on: <ItemGroup> <Tests

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Below is a portion of a MSBuild file that I’m working on:

<ItemGroup>
  <Tests Include="$(SolutionDir)\**\bin\$(TestPlatform)\$(Configuration)\*.Tests.dll" />
</ItemGroup>

<PropertyGroup>
  <TestProperties>/testcontainer:%(Tests.FullPath)</TestProperties>
</PropertyGroup>

I want to have a property that holds a command line switch. However, when I try to use $(TestProperties) in an Exec Command string, %(Tests.FullPath) is never resolved to the absolute path of the Tests item. Instead, it’s always processed literally, as "%(Tests.FullPath)".

Am I doing something wrong or is this a standard MSBuild behavior? If the latter, is there a way for me to workaround this?

Thanks

P.S. – I realize I probably don’t need to access the FullPath property since my Include value is an absolute path. However, I’d still like to understand the issue, along with how to handle it.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You have a syntax error. Item lists are referenced via the @ character and item meta data is referenced via %. Reference the MSBuild Special Character Reference for details. To access the well known item metadata, you need to apply a transform inside the Property itself. 

    <ItemGroup>
  <Tests Include="MyFile.txt" />
</ItemGroup>

<PropertyGroup>
  <TestProperties>/testcontainer:@(Tests->'%(FullPath)')</TestProperties>
</PropertyGroup>

    You can find more help here

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