Itemgroup folder include Those not familiar with MSBuild, that basically expands to all files, and sub-directories. So here's what I've done in my msbuild project. This happens in the default Visual Studio 2017 ASP. There are two usual approaches: Copy all of the contents of the folder instead This works great as long as the contents of the directory are static. This means if I run this project without physically copying and adding these files I get ArgumentException: The directory name 'Path-To-project\pagesettings' does not exist. csproj files for which a . <ItemGroup Feb 7, 2013 · I'm trying to build an ItemGroup in an MSBuild script which contains a list of folders directly below a given 'Root' folder. For example, this setting is the default value for an . Works for both normal . nuspec file with the Also, whenever a file is deleted or added in the solution explorer, the project file is altered, and all files are included separately, instead of just including the folder. csproj file explained - propetygroups, targetframework, ItemGroup . 6. Jan 31, 2018 · MSBuild doesn't have a built-in concept for this. When multiple ItemGroup elements are used, items are combined into a single ItemGroup. Oct 10, 2025 · Learn about common MSBuild project items. The Visible entry hides the files, not the folders as expected. But I do not find anything. The target DynamicExcludeList's incorrectly selects these files: . If files are added to the directory during the build, you must use a target to expand the wildcard, or it will copy only the files that were present at the beginning of the build. Wha Oct 10, 2025 · Learn about common MSBuild project items. csproj file for the compiler to recognize them. But, I don't want them in the "root level" of my project, I would rather see them in a subfolder in my project. csproj file format makes it really easy to develop NuGet packages that multi-target several frameworks, but you will likely occasionally need to use the conditional syntax to make this work. That’s about as complicated as it gets. 2 project. net 4. csproj and *. Nov 13, 2023 · Managing Custom Files with <None Update> and <None Include> in MSBuild Project Files: A Practical Approach When it comes to handling custom files within an MSBuild project (. txt If you want to add the entire folder as link and preserve the directory structure, you can use this inside your . csproj file as some item groups: <ItemGroup> <Folder So my issue is pretty simple. net framewrok (non-sdk format), . The following example's demonstrates how to copy a folder located outside of the project directory to the published site. Every item must be a child of an ItemGroup element. I've recreated my database and tried running that procedure to confirm that this is enough to prevent it getting published. Items are named references to one or more strings (for example, filenames), and have metadata like file names, paths, and version numbers. Config files (including package sources) are still applied as explained in Common NuGet configurations. txt Apr 3, 2017 · In . Works fine. If you change this file name, it will also change the filename as it's displayed in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer. Working Scope: Include attribute: 1. \AFolder\test. vbproj), or a database project (. Project File Inclusion: Files or folders must be included in the . NET Core (. This works for the config file I want - this was Oct 13, 2020 · If you want to add the entire folder as link and preserve the directory structure, you can use this inside your . The Exclude statement is expected to prevent the Project. Sdk"> Specifies that this project file uses the Microsoft. I'm trying to create an ItemGroup in my MSBuild script that includes all these Oct 8, 2010 · If you run this scrip it creates some sample file then tries to create an array called TheFiles based on the Include/Exclude attributes, problem is when the Exclude is anything other than hardcoded or a very simple property it gets it wrong. Do I have to delete the other ItemGroup that contains one line per sub folder and all the files in it that VS auto creates in the csproj file? The table in this article describes the metadata assigned to every item upon creation. proj) looks like this: May 2, 2025 · Discover how to explicitly exclude or conditionally include files from builds for MSBuild project files with attributes and wildcards. To accomplish this, I've been looking at blogposts and code on Github. NET 5 and Feb 14, 2019 · The new . net core webapi to Publish directory When you add a folder in your project, your . An example is a text file that contains documentation, such as a Readme file. Jan 15, 2019 · Ideally under the same path relative to the output/publish folder. csproj files Mar 31, 2010 · I'm frequently adding a lot of content files (mostly images and js) to my ASP. Right now, I found a working solution to add those files by specifying each folder manu Aug 9, 2021 · So my problem was the Email folder was not copied to the published package. Every Visual Studio project includes an MSBuild project file, with a file extension that reflects the type of project—for example, a C# project (. csproj file. Jan 16, 2024 · Learn how to configure your publish profile in C# to include files external to the project in the final publish result. NET Standard projects, if you put files and folders within the project directory, they are automatically picked up by Visual Studio; essentially they are part of the project. Apr 5, 2017 · In VS2017 it much easier now to support multiple frameworks inside a single . NET project. xml" /> </ItemGroup> to include a bunch of xml files into my C# project. I add the files to my project by right clicking the wwwroot > js folder and then select Add > New Item > JavaScript File This is my . In order to build a project, MSBuild must Nov 4, 2016 · In a simple project file, you normally use a single ItemGroup element, but you can also use multiple ItemGroup elements. So - in this example Oct 2, 2025 · Select the files to build in the MSBuild project file by listing each file separately or by using wildcards with the asterisk (*) character. nuspec file to include static files into a nuget package Hello all, I've been trying to ship static content in a nuget package for a while now. When you create a new project VS2017 (that target . I'm using VS publish system, and on publish, new files are not published until I include them in the proj May 2, 2025 · Discover how to explicitly exclude or conditionally include files from builds for MSBuild project files with attributes and wildcards. 0, can I include files in an <ItemGroup> only when a condition is met? My use case is that I want to create a collection of all . The next table shows some optional metadata that has meaning for MSBuild, which you can define to control build behavior. csproj Feb 12, 2020 · How to add folders in . . RecursiveDir) meta-data will contain the path starting at the path segment in your Include attribute that contains either * or **. In short, if I specify something like this: <ItemGroup> <Content Include="logs"> <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always Aug 31, 2010 · In Visual Studio, we can "Add as link" to add a link to a file in another project in the solution. May 4, 2015 · I’ve written before about how you have to make sure to include asset files into the project file if you want Azure to deploy them during a git deployment. With Mar 15, 2018 · At a pinch I have often written a custom task which takes an itemgroup and iterates metadata - though it's worth noting the difference between metadata (such as the Identity property), and attributes such as include exclude, which are fixed, and explained in the second msdn link Jan 22, 2010 · I've never seen triple star *** but the meaning of ** is match anything including sub-folders and * is match anything in the same folder (do not recurse in sub-folders). Sep 29, 2025 · Learn how MSBuild uses the Item element to contain a user-defined item and its metadata. The project file (for example include. csproj file: <ItemGroup> Jan 30, 2018 · Include gives the relative path to the file from the project folder, and the Link property tells MSBuild to add the file as a link, plus the name that should be used for it. <ItemGroup> <SomeAppStuff Include="$(SolutionDir)\ProjectXXX\bins\**\*. *" /> </ItemGroup> <Copy SourceFiles="@(SomeAppStaff)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)\%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" Retries="3" RetryDelayMilliseconds="300"/> Specifying $(OutputPath)\%(RecursiveDir) will ask Copy task to respect subfolders, so it will place subfolders of source Mar 3, 2011 · Further, MSBuild can't compose a path with a wildcard inside the Include attribute and evaluate it at the same time, so you need a trick to first compose the full path separately, then feed it into the Include attribute. txt - file2. Dec 20, 2019 · Learn how to import . Jun 12, 2017 · <ItemGroup> <Content Include="contentFiles/**/*. htm or other kind of Web file. csproj) web application. The %(ReleaseFiles. Every time I create a package, the files don't show up in the project that installs the Nuget package. config file. I have: <!-- front-end files to serve --> <ItemGroup> <Folder Include="Frontend\Content"> <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory> </Folder> </ItemGroup> However, when I use dotnet publish, no file is copied. Jul 1, 2022 · When you create and build solutions in Visual Studio, Visual Studio uses MSBuild to build each project in your solution. Problem with *. Update attribute => Enables you to modify metadata of a file that was included by using a glob. The way I had been adding files was to include an ItemGroup in the project . dbproj). In my . Content - The file is not compiled, but is included in the Content output group. Mar 3, 2023 · <ItemGroup> <Folder Include="Internal\" /> </ItemGroup> I try to understand what is meaning of this tag with official documents. Dec 10, 2017 · The link element behaves strangely for me in a . csproj file in which I specified both the Content and PackagePath elements. NET Core) template. May 5, 2022 · I am trying to exclude an entire folder from being build in my vscode project, I have edited my project file to look like this: <Project Sdk="Microsoft. I have some files that I want to be copied to the build output directory whether it is a debug build or a release publish. *. csproj), the <None Nov 13, 2018 · Include build directory in nuget package using visual studio pack According to the document Including content in a package, you should use the properties <Pack>true</Pack> and <PackagePath>build\</PackagePath>: If you want to copy all your content to only a specific root folder (s) (instead of content and contentFiles both), you can use the MSBuild property ContentTargetFolders, which defaults I can see that all sql files are individually included in an ItemGroup called Build, and that excluding a script in VS just removes it from this list. Aug 20, 2025 · Visual Studio Behavior: Simply adding a folder via "Add New Folder" in Visual Studio creates a directory in the project, but it doesn’t automatically assign namespaces to files within that folder unless they are correctly configured. None - The file is not included in the project output group and is not compiled in the build process. proj file to be excluded. Jan 17, 2017 · The File include is recursively including all files starting in the parent directory of the project. We have two ways to achieve this: General file inclusion In this method we use the DotNetPublishFiles tag, which is provided by a publish targets file in the Web SDK. NET Core and . cshtml"> <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> </None> <None Include="Email\ResetPassword. For example, this file is included into a Mapping folder in Visual Studio: Mar 11, 2024 · Explore how MSBuild uses the ItemGroup and ItemDefinitionGroup elements to declare metadata settings for items in project files. . 1 project: How can I include folder AppData and all of its subfolders and files when I publish the solution? I tried adding this to . csproj file gets modified as shown below: <ItemGroup> <Folder Include="AppData\" /> <Folder Include="OfflineFiles\Year\" /> </ItemGroup> Added a new folder and a class to that folder, nothing strange. NET Core Web Application (. In each example, the following item declaration was used to include the file C:\MyProject\Source\Program. proto files from another project and compile them using protoc with proper include paths. 0), whenever I build the project newly added files or folders will be added to to . csproj files can use it within the solution? As an example, this ItemG Jan 31, 2023 · I want to add some files recursively to a single project that are located in folders inside my solution root. csproj: <ItemGroup> <None Include="Email\EmailConfirmation. Let's break down each section and understand its purpose: Project Information <Project Sdk="Microsoft. So, my question is, What is this tag (What is meaning of that?)? and When I add my directory in csproj as Folder tag? May 10, 2015 · In MSBuild 12. csproj file i added the following: Jun 20, 2017 · How to add an embedded resources such as data or images files to be include in your to a ASP. It's still there in the file system though. Jul 29, 2025 · Package references, using <PackageReference> MSBuild items, specify NuGet package dependencies directly within project files, as opposed to having a separate packages. The next folder I create is worse, it gets added to csproj: <ItemGroup> <Folder Include="NewFolder\" /> </ItemGroup> If I remove the added lines in csproj the folder disappears from the solution. I have a few files in a "wwwroot/build" folder that, when the project builds, i want to output to the /bin/Release/wwwroot folder. 1 (26403. *" copyToOutput="true"> <IncludeInPackage>true</IncludeInPackage> </Content> </ItemGroup> Now the . Add this code to . csproj file: Feb 16, 2021 · Within Visual Studio (2019 in this case) solution, is there a way to specify an <ItemGroup> in a location that multiple . csproj file I have the following <ItemGroup> … Dec 4, 2021 · To correct the anomaly, I first needed to ensure the CodeTemplates folder was properly packaged in the NuGet file. Oct 29, 2019 · What is the difference between update and include? According to this document: Usage: Include attribute => The file or wildcard to include in the list of items. \. Take the example above, the files to include are **\*. Sdk"> <ItemGroup> Oct 26, 2008 · You define an ItemGroup, and then call the Zip task. NET. NET Standard Jan 19, 2017 · This issue has been inspired by dotnet/cli#2911. csproj file is a xml file used in a . Oct 13, 2020 · How to include folders as link recursively in csproj files 13 Oct, 2020 Suppose we have a folder called dependencies with this structure: - dependencies - child-folder - file. So I have a subfolder "App" and In the main projects . NET Core 2. <ItemGroup> <EmbeddedResource Include=". js, images etc) to run inside a webview. Thats pretty annoying, especially if you’re using external build tools to copy assets into the css, images or assets folders – You have to remember to right click and Include in Project. To prevent this, you can use the same trick, but put it in a separate project file and then import it. NET project? It's something you might have to do for files you need to place in a folder like . \resources\hbm\*. csproj), a Visual Basic. NET Core and continued in . nupkg file has the contents of the contentFiles folder inside it (in two places, a content folder, and a contentFiles folder). I can fix this by removing the ItemGroup from my csproj file, but I don't think that's very productive. Use of PackageReference doesn't affect other aspects of NuGet; for example, settings in NuGet. Jul 22, 2020 · Often we need to include external files/folders in publish profile to deploy on published site. txt - file3. All of the information I can find is about t Feb 2, 2018 · Came from dotnet/project-system#3203 Following steps in @rainersigwald's post, files did have been copied to output folder, but the root folder ("config" itself) can not be copy to output path. Mine was a little more complicated, and looked like this:. net core and . cs in the project. However, when I install the package in another project, the content files do not appear, although they are listed in the Feb 24, 2022 · Including a Hidden Folder in ASP. NET Publish Ever want to include a hidden folder and files in your publish output from an ASP. Oct 6, 2025 · Various bits of information about MSBuild and . net standard (sdk format), also Jan 6, 2017 · The folder structure contains subfolders which appear in the project tree without any files in them. cs;. For Jun 13, 2022 · I have a WinUI3 project, where I want to include a bunch of "asset" file (eg . Feb 19, 2019 · I have the following folder structure for my . NET Core or . NET project (. hbm. well-known (the one I have the screenshot of below is for a Brave Rewards verification file). cshtml"> <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> </None> </ItemGroup> Or you can set it in the project Sep 14, 2012 · My Solution has multiple projects (and therefore subdirectories), and there is a 'bin' folder in each project folder. Is there any way to do this for entire folders, so that an entire folder in project A will be vis Worked for me to but why on VS 2019 does it then show every file twice in the solution explorer? Doesn't seem to effect me. Sdk SDK style, which is the new SDK-based project format introduced in . Or so I thought. csproj file: Oct 1, 2020 · So as a user I can access the files, but they don't "exist" when the project is run. Wouldn’t it be nice if Visual Studio and Apr 10, 2017 · From @SirwanAfifi on April 9, 2017 6:43 I'm using Visual Studio Community 2017 - Version 15.