Copy files to output directory using csproj dotnetcore

Question

So my issue is pretty simple. 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. All of the information I can find is about the old json config approach. Anyone have an example using the csproj with dotnetcore?

Agglutinative

Answer 1

There's quite a few ways to achieve your goals, depending on what your needs are.

The easiest approach is setting the metadata (CopyToOutputDirectory / CopyToPublishDirectory) items conditionally (assuming .txt being a None item instead of Content, if it doesn't work, try <Content> instead):

<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
  <None Update="foo.txt" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" />
</ItemGroup>

If more control is required, the most versatile approach is to add custom targets that hook into the build process in the csproj file:

<Target Name="CopyCustomContent" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
  <Copy SourceFiles="foo.txt" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CopyCustomContentOnPublish" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <Copy SourceFiles="foo.txt" DestinationFolder="$(PublishDir)" />
</Target>

This copies a file to the respective directories. For more options for the <Copy> task, see its documentation. To limit this to certain configurations, you can use a Condition attribute:

<Target … Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">

This Condition attribute can be applied both on the <Target> element or on task elements like <Copy>.

Astir

How would i apply 'DestinationFolder' to <Reference> items, or is it event possible, there's not much in the docs that i can find. I don't want all my assemblies at the root level and would prefer them to be in their own folder. – Quartet

You can set DestinationSubDirectory="subdir\" metadata on Reference items directly. However this means you need to implement assembly resolution yourself (AssemblyResolve event) – Astir

How can I copy parent folder that contains some dlls in respective folders. I want to make them available in the output published path so that after build these folders r available for my application at run time, as I load these dlls as plugins at startup. I am using rider on mac – Indira

Warning, if you are using Azure Pipelines and the files to be copied do not exist except from a PreBuild step in the same .csproj file. You will run into a chicken-and-egg problem where the build agent "misses" the files. It may be related to the warning they provide during the build step: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/… – Prognostic

Answer 2

While this helped me get my issue sorted, it didn't work for all files in a sub-directory. I also used Content Include rather than Content Update.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="layouts\*.*">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>  
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Jermayne

Every other permutation of all of the other answers/suggestions failed to work for me. Not even a mention of the file in verbose build output. But your suggestion here worked. – Sphere

And if you want to include intermediate subfolders use <Content Include="layouts\**\*.*"> – Instrumentality

When using the Web SDK (<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">) it wont allow you to use Include= because it is already seems to implicitly specify that within the SDK. I had to use Update= to get it to build and include my additional files. – Bunkum

Nice, thanks.. But how to copy only the content of the folder to the output directory not the folder itself. The expression assets\*.* should assume it. But it copies the complete assets folder. So I have bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/assets/... But I want the files of the assets folder to the root directory of the output. bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/.... – Publus

I found a solution: xml <Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk"> <ItemGroup> <AssetsSourceFiles Include="assets/**/*.*"/> </ItemGroup> <Target Name="CopyCustomContent" AfterTargets="AfterBuild"> <Copy SourceFiles="@(AssetsSourceFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" /> </Target> </Project> (see my answer for a better code format.) – Publus

Not sure why, but I had to use <None Update="layouts\*.*> to get mine to work – Vincevincelette

Answer 3

Assuming you have an assets folder in your root directory. You can name it as you want. This is just an example:

your-project.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AssetsSourceFiles Include="assets/**/*.*"/>
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="CopyCustomContent" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(AssetsSourceFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
  </Target>
</Project>

this copies only the content of the assets folder to the output root without wrapping it into the assets folder. But if you want to copy with the folder itself, you can use the following code:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="assets\**\*.*">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Publus

Excellent, I was missing the assets**. ... the two wildcards to specify depth. Thanks! – Superabound

Answer 4

Place this in your .csproj file, replacing nlog.config with the desired file path. Then simply save it and build your project:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Update="Nlog.config">
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>

Sibilla

This doesn't appear to copy subdirectories. – Gastrointestinal

Answer 5

I had the requirement for a selection of HTML templates to be consumable both client-side and server-side (Handlebars js)

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Update="wwwroot\html-templates\**\*.*">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Krafftebing

Answer 6

For example, you have file named test.txt. To set Copy always to this file you need to add this section to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
    <None Include="test.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
</ItemGroup>

Paddlefish

Answer 7

This will copy full directory into subdirectory with proper names.

<ItemGroup>
    <Content 
      Include="..\libs\x64\**\*.*"
      CopyToOutputDirectory="Always"
      TargetPath="x64\%(Filename)%(Extension)"
    />
</ItemGroup>

Cylix

Answer 8

If you need to force copy of a specific NuGet package into an ASP.NET Core project (2.2), add at the end of your csproj:

<!-- Force copy MathNet because we need it in compilation -->
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="Build">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Error Condition="!Exists('..\packages\MathNet.Numerics.4.8.1\lib\netstandard2.0\MathNet.Numerics.dll')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\packages\MathNet.Numerics.4.8.1\lib\netstandard2.0\MathNet.Numerics.dll'))" />
</Target>

<ItemGroup>
    <ContentWithTargetPath Include="..\packages\MathNet.Numerics.4.8.1\lib\netstandard2.0\MathNet.Numerics.dll">
        <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
       <TargetPath>MathNet.Numerics.dll</TargetPath>
    </ContentWithTargetPath>
</ItemGroup>

Stockman

Answer 9

<PropertyGroup>
    <PostBuildEvent>xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Xml" "$(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)Xml" /S /F /I /R /Y</PostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>

or

<PropertyGroup>
    <PostBuildEvent>copy /Y "$(ProjectDir)MyXml.xml" "$(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)Xml"</PostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>

Tod

Ideally use a <Copy> task to make it cross platform. – Binturong

copy sometimes may fail whole building process. e..g because of race conditions. imagine you have a class library with a file which you need to put into outdir and it is referenced by many projects. solution is build by msbuild with -maxCpuCount option - like building in parallel. and it turns out that several thread try to copy the same file via copy target and it fails. i switched to xcopy\copy and the problem gone – Tod

Did you add the Copy task to all projects? Perhaps via Directory.Build.props? You can set that to run on a single project by conditioning it only to the project that you expect to make the copy (e.g: The first project to build). Those that depend on that output won't run in parallel – Binturong

No, the copy task is in single project, which owns the file. Could you please share what do you mean by to run a single project by conditioning it ... – Tod

Like <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(ProjectName)' == 'MyProject'"> – Binturong