dotnet publish with /p:PublishProfile=?

Question

I'm trying to call "dotnet publish" with a specific publish profile pubxml file as documented here :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/visual-studio-publish-profiles?view=aspnetcore-2.1&tabs=aspnetcore2x

However, everything I try seems to result in the default behaviour, and the /p:PublishProfile part is ignored.

dotnet publish /p:PublishProfile="MyFolderProfile"

Doesn't work, and logs no error, building to the default location under "/obj".

I do note that an intentionally incorrect command has the same result though, eg:

dotnet publish /p:PublishProfile="MyFolderProfile-XXXXX"

What am I doing wrong? - Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Of course, it's not a solution, but I ended up listing all options (Release, output directory, etc.) manually — Felix, May 26 '18 at 20:39
Have you tried specifying the project the profile was built upon? Like this: `dotnet publish WebApplication.csproj /p:PublishProfile="MyFolderProfile"` — Victor Alves, Aug 01 '18 at 15:56
@VictorAlves I'm not the original poster, but I have tried with the project in the command line and that doesn't help either. It seems the problem is a long existing one, even using msbuild: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/issues/1901 It seems you will have to manually specify the parameters on the command line, e.g. `-c Release`, `/p:PublishDir=dist`, etc — Falconne, Aug 22 '18 at 05:08

Sau001 · Answer 1 · 2019-10-08T08:39:38.290

My response is late. My solution has a simple .NET Core console application ConsoleAppCore.csproj. I used Visual Studio IDE to generate a publish profile with the name FolderProfile.pubxml and then the following commands worked for me:

Relative path - From the solution root

dotnet publish ConsoleAppCore\ConsoleAppCore.csproj /p:PublishProfile=ConsoleAppCore\Properties\PublishProfiles\FolderProfile.pubxml

Absolute path - From any location

dotnet publish "C:\work\ConsoleAppCore\ConsoleAppCore.csproj"   "/p:PublishProfile=C:\work\ConsoleAppCore\Properties\PublishProfiles\FolderProfile.pubxml"

On Azure dev ops

Task name=.NET Core

Task version=2

Command=publish

Path to projects=I left this empty

Arguments=

$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\ConsoleAppCore\ConsoleAppCore.csproj /p:PublishProfile=$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\ConsoleAppCore\Properties\PublishProfiles\FolderProfile.pubxml  --configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --output  $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\ConsoleAppCore-Publish\

In the Azure Dev Ops build pipeline scenario, I have redirected the output to a folder under $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory) . I also have a Publish Artifact task which is configured to use the staging directory variable.

I have made use of the publish profile XML file because I wanted a single file to govern the complete behavior while on Azure Devops. Relying on a single file for all parameters simplifies management on Azure.

Azure Dev ops - Artifacts Explorer

The Publish Artifact task created a drop for me and this is how it looks. Please notice that the file name in the explorer tallies with the name specified along with the --output option in the dotnet publish task

Unfortunately this does not seem to work the same way on linux. The publish profile is simply ignored. — Ivaylo Slavov, Nov 25 '19 at 15:39
I can't speak for Linux but this is the most surefire way to get it to wok on Windows. — Taul, Jan 22 '20 at 16:38
The "Relative path - From the solution root" solution worked for me! Thanks — Jan, Mar 17 '21 at 08:02
Looks like full / relative paths should not be working now, as per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-publish "If you specify a path and file extension when setting the `PublishProfile` property, they are ignored. MSBuild by default looks in the _Properties/PublishProfiles_ folder and assumes the _pubxml_ file extension. To specify the path and filename including extension, set the `PublishProfileFullPath` property instead of the `PublishProfile` property." — Lanorkin, Oct 26 '21 at 13:11

A. Don · Answer 2 · 2018-10-22T08:51:36.577

16

I ran into the same issue a while ago. I managed to fix it by instead calling:

dotnet build [projectname] /p:PublishProfile=[PublishProfile]

edited Oct 22 '18 at 08:51

answered Oct 22 '18 at 08:46

A. Don

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What will `[projectname]` be? – Anders Lindén May 06 '19 at 14:55
6

Add `/p:DeployOnBuild=true` to deploy after build - see here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/visual-studio-publish-profiles?view=aspnetcore-3.1#publish-profiles – shlgug Dec 16 '19 at 15:09

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '21 at 13:06

11

There is an open (as of Oct 2021) issue for Folder Publish with the similar symptoms https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/issues/12490

Workaround I use for now is to manually edit *.pubxml file produced by VS.Net to have both PublishUrl and PublishDir keys with the same values.

With this dotnet publish -p:PublishProfile=... works as expected.

answered Oct 26 '21 at 13:06

Lanorkin

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This was the fix for me. Thanks! – solrevdev Feb 21 '22 at 13:25
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Note that as mentioned in the thread, this still ignores things like 'DeleteExistingFiles' – Rotem May 31 '22 at 17:55

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 06 '18 at 23:45

10

You might need the full path, e.g.

dotnet publish -c Release /p:PublishProfile=Properties\PublishProfiles\FolderProfile.pubxml

answered Sep 06 '18 at 23:45

andrewb

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Without specifying either sln or csproj file? – Anders Lindén May 06 '19 at 14:56
@AndersLindén yep I didn't need to specify that, but I probably just had a single .csproj file in the directory – andrewb May 08 '19 at 05:40

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 16 '19 at 15:16

Try this based on: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/visual-studio-publish-profiles?view=aspnetcore-3.1#publish-profiles

dotnet build ..\project\project.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true -c Release /p:PublishProfile="Folder Staging"

I included a relative csproj path and a publish profile name with a space in it to clarify how to deal with those cases. The -c flag is optionally used to specify the configuration to use.

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 24 '20 at 22:01

See https://github.com/dotnet/docs/issues/19677. The PublishProfile is only the name, any directory before it is disregarded.

PublishProfile property is treated as a file name and the directory is constructed separately.

The PublishProfileFullPath property should be used if specifying a custom path.

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited May 14 '19 at 09:25

1

I used this on VS build events

dotnet publish $(SolutionDir)DIRECTORI_1/PROJECT_1.csproj -c Release -o C:\Deployments\FOLDER_1

edited May 14 '19 at 09:25

Suraj Rao

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answered May 14 '19 at 09:25

Javier Contreras

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ejectamenta · Answer 8 · 2022-10-19T14:39:08.020

To solve the problem you must add a < PublishDir > property to your .pubxml file. Then the

dotnet publish /p:Configuration=Release /p:PublishProfile=FolderProfile

command works fine.

Example below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121.
-->
<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <DeleteExistingFiles>false</DeleteExistingFiles>
    <ExcludeApp_Data>false</ExcludeApp_Data>
    <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>true</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
    <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Release</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
    <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
    <PublishProvider>FileSystem</PublishProvider>
    <PublishUrl>C:\MyApp\PUBLISH</PublishUrl>
    <PublishDir>C:\MyApp\PUBLISH</PublishDir>
    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
    <_TargetId>Folder</_TargetId>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

you can also use a relative path like

    <PublishUrl>PUBLISH</PublishUrl>
    <PublishDir>PUBLISH</PublishDir>

dotnet publish with /p:PublishProfile=?

8 Answers8

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