Question

I’m trying to create a “Files” task item group with a metadata attribute called “TargetPath” populated with the relative path to a file.

Example:
For these paths:

D:\Test\Blah.exe
D:\Test\Config\fun.config
D:\Test\en-US\my.resources.dll

The output should be:

File Target = Blah.exe
File Target = Config\fun.config
File Target = en-US\my.resources.dll

Here is my best attempt… hopefully this makes my question clearer:

<ItemGroup>
     <Files Include="d:\test\**\*" >
        <TargetPath>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</TargetPath>
     </Files>
 </ItemGroup>

<Message Text="File Target = @(Files->'%(TargetPath)')"/>

I’d like “TargetPath” populated correctly… currently it appears to be null or empty. Anyone know what I’m missing?

Edit:

Yes, I realize I can do this:

<Message Text="File Target = @(Files->'%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>

However, I’m building up this ItemGroup to use the ResolveManifestFiles MSBuild task, which requires that I build up a TaskItem with the TargetPath metadata attribute to be able to customize that value.

Answer 1

You’re trying to assign dynamic metadata to an itemgroup before it’s created. In your example there’s no need to create custom metadata since this information is already part of the well-known metadata, so you can just do:

<ItemGroup>
   <Files Include="d:\test\**\*" ></Files>
</ItemGroup>

<Message Text="File Target = @(Files->'%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>  

Or:

<Message Text="File Target = %(Files.RecursiveDir)%(Files.Filename)%(Files.Extension)"/>

EDIT:

This example uses CreateItem task to dynamically update the itemgroup:

<ItemGroup>
    <Files Include="d:\test\**\*" ></Files>
</ItemGroup>

<CreateItem
    Include="@(Files)"
    AdditionalMetadata="TargetPath=%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)">
      <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="Files"/>
</CreateItem>