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?

score 238 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:12

238

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>.

edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:12

Pang

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answered Jun 05 '17 at 22:04

Martin Ullrich

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How would i apply 'DestinationFolder' to 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. – Reahreic Mar 20 '20 at 14:15
You can set `DestinationSubDirectory="subdir\"` metadata on `Reference` items directly. However this means you need to implement assembly resolution yourself ([AssemblyResolve event](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.appdomain.assemblyresolve?view=netframework-4.8)) – Martin Ullrich Mar 21 '20 at 21:45
1

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 – kuldeep Jun 04 '20 at 16:47
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: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/dotnet-core-cli?view=azure-devops#troubleshooting – Nathan Goings Nov 15 '21 at 21:12

score 158 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:14

158

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>

edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:14

Pang

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answered Jul 26 '18 at 17:40

Mr Moose

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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. – user7817808 Sep 06 '18 at 23:52
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And if you want to include intermediate subfolders use `` – JSancho Jan 11 '19 at 00:25
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When using the Web SDK (``) 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. – notracs Oct 16 '19 at 09:27
1

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/...`. – Domske Feb 25 '20 at 17:16
2

I found a solution: ```xml ``` (see my answer for a better code format.) – Domske Feb 26 '20 at 12:38
Not sure why, but I had to use ` – nedstark179 Jul 07 '21 at 18:13

Domske · Answer 3 · 2020-04-21T09:51:05.787

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>

Excellent, I was missing the assets\**\*.* ... the two wildcards to specify depth. Thanks! — Vedran Mandić, Jan 27 '21 at 14:08

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:15

17

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>

edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:15

Pang

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answered Apr 12 '18 at 23:30

2Yootz

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This doesn't appear to copy subdirectories. – null Nov 07 '19 at 05:57

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:15

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>

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 21 '21 at 17:26

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>

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 06 '23 at 11:38

3

This will copy full directory into subdirectory with proper names.

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

answered Jan 06 '23 at 11:38

llewellyn falco

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score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:16

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>

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:15

0

<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>

edited Dec 09 '20 at 00:15

Pang

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answered Dec 27 '19 at 10:32

isxaker

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Ideally use a task to make it cross platform. – Bruno Garcia Jan 12 '20 at 18:23

Copy files to output directory using csproj dotnetcore

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