VSTS build fails with MSB4184 The path is not of a legal form

Question

I'm attempting to use the build system in VSTS to build and deploy a c# .net web app. I've created a new single-project solution (as there doesn't seem to be any way to specify which project to build/deploy in a multi project solution!?!) and set up my build definition to point to this new solution. I've set it up to use the VS2017 build agent.

The NuGet restore completes and it begins to build but fails with the error:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish\build\netstandard1.0\PublishTargets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish.MSDeployPackage.targets(124,7): Error MSB4184: The expression "[System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName('')" cannot be evaluated. The path is not of a legal form.

Has anyone encountered this and knows how to fix it? Thanks

What's the result after trying my solution? – starian chen-MSFT May 23 '17 at 05:00 — starian chen-MSFT, May 23 '17 at 05:00

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 21 '20 at 14:59

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I know this might be bit late, but if it helps anyone then they should install the extension VSColorOutput

Then go to Tools => Options => VSColorOutput => General => Set Stop Build on First Error to true.

edited May 21 '20 at 14:59

Mohamad Mousheimish

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answered May 21 '20 at 11:27

user13309289

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VSColorOutput is a great help but Stop Build on First Error does not work for me (large Fortran project), it happily keeps on building. – lineinthesand Nov 13 '20 at 08:23

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

1

Using .Net Core step/task instead. (Command: publish; Arguments: --configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --output $(build.artifactstagingdirectory))

Similar issue: VSTS fails to build my really really simple ASP.NET Core app

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered May 15 '17 at 03:14

starian chen-MSFT

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VSTS build fails with MSB4184 The path is not of a legal form

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