Question

See this MSDN post for some background: Using metadata to call a target multiple times with different parameters

The solution put forward was to use metadata in a Task’s Output attribute to force the batching of the task.

It so happens that our build step is partitioned across a few targets. My requirement is for the dependencies to run sequentially in a sort of inner loop.

I tried the concept out with the following script:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <Project DefaultTargets='BuildSolutions'          xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'          ToolsVersion='3.5'>     <ItemGroup>         <BuildFile Include='myscript.txt'>           <InstallerFileName>MyInstaller1.msi</InstallerFileName>           <CustomTwiddleBit>true</CustomTwiddleBit>           <OtherCustomTwiddleBit>false</OtherCustomTwiddleBit>         </BuildFile>         <BuildFile Include='myscript.txt'>           <InstallerFileName>MyInstaller2.msi</InstallerFileName>           <CustomTwiddleBit>false</CustomTwiddleBit>           <OtherCustomTwiddleBit>true</OtherCustomTwiddleBit>         </BuildFile>     </ItemGroup>      <Target           Name='BuildInstallers'          Outputs='OutputDir\%(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)'          DependsOnTargets='Step3'      >         <Exec Command='echo %(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' />     </Target>      <Target Name='Step1'>           <Exec Command='echo step 1 %(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' />      </Target>       <Target Name='Step2'              DependsOnTargets='Step1'>           <Exec Command='echo step 2 %(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' />      </Target>       <Target Name='Step3'              DependsOnTargets='Step2'>           <Exec Command='echo step 3 %(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' />      </Target>       </Project> 

The output was as follows:

Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 3.5.30729.1   [Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.3053]   Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.    Build started 2/16/2009 20:41:14.   Project 'D:\Source\test\test.proj' on node 0 (BuildInstallers target(s)).     step 1 MyInstaller1.msi     step 1 MyInstaller2.msi   Step2:     step 2 MyInstaller1.msi     step 2 MyInstaller2.msi   Step3:     step 3 MyInstaller1.msi     step 3 MyInstaller2.msi   BuildInstallers:     MyInstaller1.msi   BuildInstallers:     MyInstaller2.msi   Done Building Project 'D:\Source\test\test.proj' (BuildInstallers target(s)).     Build succeeded.       0 Warning(s)       0 Error(s)    Time Elapsed 00:00:00.43  

Any ideas how I might get the output to be like so:

step 1 MyInstaller1.msi step 2 MyInstaller1.msi step 3 MyInstaller1.msi  step 1 MyInstaller2.msi step 2 MyInstaller2.msi step 3 MyInstaller2.msi 

Answer 1

I sure see the problem here as

<Exec Command='echo step 1 %(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' /> 

Will iterate again and again on the InstallerFileName output. I think you can call a custom target instead and that target go through each of your steps. Call this target from the main script with the MSBuild Task, something like this:

<MSBuild Projects='CustomTargets.proj'    Targets='BuildInstallers'   Properties='BuildFile=%(BuildFile.InstallerFileName)' /> 

And in you BuildInstallers target you would use

<Target ='BuildInstallers' DependsOnTargets='Step3' > </Target>  <Target Name='Step1'>       <Exec Command='echo step 1 $(BuildFile)' />  </Target>  

etc