Question

I’m calling an external tool to do some post processing in my build sequence using the Exec task in MSBuild. When I update the tool to a new version the name of the directory of the executable changes, but the directory is added to the system PATH variable. Is it possible to use the system PATH variable in MSBuild? I tried the following code but it does not work:

<Exec Command="&quot;$(PATH)\mytool.exe&quot;  />

Answer 1

If the directory has been added to the PATH variable, I would expect that the file path would be resolved automatically. I.e. you should be able to use:

<Exec Command="mytool.exe"/>

Maybe first check if the resolution is working ok by opening up a command prompt, cd’ing to some root directory that is different to where the ‘mytool.exe’ lives, and see if it is resolved when you simply enter “mytool.exe” at the prompt.