I\'m trying to replicate the Visual Studio 2010 \"Publish...\" command (applicable to Web Application projects) where I would in the UI choose Publish Method: \"File System\".
I gave up trying to get MSBuild to copy deployable web files (and not do anything else but that), so I scripted it in PowerShell and am really happy with the result. Much faster than anything I tried through MSBuild. Here's the gist (literally):
function copy-deployable-web-files($proj_path, $deploy_dir) {
# copy files where Build Action = "Content"
$proj_dir = split-path -parent $proj_path
[xml]$xml = get-content $proj_path
$xml.Project.ItemGroup | % { $_.Content } | % { $_.Include } | ? { $_ } | % {
$from = "$proj_dir\$_"
$to = split-path -parent "$deploy_dir\$_"
if (!(test-path $to)) { md $to }
cp $from $to
}
# copy everything in bin
cp "$proj_dir\bin" $deploy_dir -recurse
}
As per my answer from Using MSBuild, how do I build an MVC4 solution from the command line (applying Web.config transformations in the process) and output to a folder?
msbuild ProjectFile.csproj /p:Configuration=Release ^
/p:Platform=AnyCPU ^
/t:WebPublish ^
/p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem ^
/p:DeleteExistingFiles=True ^
/p:publishUrl=c:\output
Or if you are building the solution file:
msbuild Solution.sln /p:Configuration=Release ^
/p:DeployOnBuild=True ^
/p:DeployDefaultTarget=WebPublish ^
/p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem ^
/p:DeleteExistingFiles=True ^
/p:publishUrl=c:\output
You can also target the project via the solution using the /t:SolutionFolder/Project:Target
syntax:
msbuild Solution.sln /t:SolutionFolder/ProjectFile:WebPublish ^
/p:Configuration=Release ^
/p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem ^
/p:DeleteExistingFiles=True ^
/p:publishUrl=c:\output
I don't think you are being specific enough with what you are telling msbuild.
Pulled this out of one of my bookmarks on the subject, hopefully it will help: http://www.digitallycreated.net/Blog/59/locally-publishing-a-vs2010-asp.net-web-application-using-msbuild