How to use an msbuild CopyTask to copy a list of directories recursively

Question

I would like to copy a list of directories recursively using a CopyTask.

The list is defined by a macro like so;

<ConanBinaryDirectories>some/path/;another/path/;</ConanBinaryDirectories>

I know a CopyTask can copy a single directory recursively, but how to deal with the specified format.

why do you need copying such directories? If you want to export those artifacts, you could use `imports` or the generator `deploy`. Patching the msbuild file generate by Conan is not a good option, since it can be changed after a new Conan release. — uilianries, Jul 23 '19 at 13:42
Hi friend, any update for this issue? Not familiar with Conan, but it seems that the msbuild way is not the only approach. Maybe you can check uilianries's comment to get some help:) — LoLance, Jul 25 '19 at 16:13

LoLance · Answer 1 · 2019-07-22T09:18:34.917

The ConanBinaryDirectories seems to be a MSBuild Property. If so, I assume you can use Msbuild Property Functions to get the single path.

Something like this:

<PropertyGroup>
    <ConanBinaryDirectories>C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path1;C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path2;</ConanBinaryDirectories>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <SourcePath1>$(ConanBinaryDirectories.Split(";")[0])</SourcePath1> //C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path1
    <SourcePath2>$(ConanBinaryDirectories.Split(";")[1])</SourcePath2> //C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path2
  </PropertyGroup>

After you get the property which represents the single directory, you can use either 1.Copy task or 2.Exec task with xcopy command in it like this to copy the single directory to destination path.

All you need to do is to call the corresponding task twice in your custom target.

I know maybe what you want when you ask this question is a way like turn the MSBuild property to an MSBuild Item as the input of a task and do the copy job. But after my check: 1. The msbuild copy task actually doesn't support the input format like this some/path/ 2.We can use something like some/path/**/*.*, but it doesn't work well when our input could be something like @(...)/**/*.*.

So I suggest you split the macro to several paths and then use them into copy job.

Update:

The msbuild property doesn't support wildcard well. So to use something like **/*.*, you need to use Item instead of Property. You can have a look at this similar issue.

For a Property whose value is Path/*.*, it only represents a string Path/*.* most of the time while for an Item <MyItem Include="Path/*.*"/>, it represents all the files in the specified path. So no matter which way(copy task or xcopy command) we choose to do the copy job,the input should be an Item.

The script which works after test:

<PropertyGroup>

C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path1;C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\Path2

  <PropertyGroup>
    <SourcePath1>$(ConanBinaryDirectories.Split(";")[0])</SourcePath1>
    <SourcePath2>$(ConanBinaryDirectories.Split(";")[1])</SourcePath2>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <MySourceFiles Include="$(SourcePath1)\**\*.*" />
    <MySourceFiles Include="$(SourcePath2)\**\*.*" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="TestItem" AfterTargets="build">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(MySourceFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)"/>
  </Target>

$(OutputPath) for C#, $(OutDir) for C++.

Thanks for the answer. Is it possible to do this without having to define a property per path. For example problematically split the `ConanBinaryDirectories` property and the append `/**/*.*` to each path. The problem I have here is the package manager [conan](https://conan.io/) only defines a property that contains the directories that contain required dependency binaries, not full paths to the binaries. I would like to copy these binaries to the project output folder. — jossgray, Jul 22 '19 at 08:15
@jossgray I think for this issue we have to split the property into different ones.Cause the input for the task should be an item(why the inputs are many files), but If we use something like `$(ConanBinaryDirectories)\**\*.*` directly in an item, the path is not valid since it has `;` in the property. So in this issue I can't find an approach to get the item which represent all files until I split the property. You can check my update for more details.Hope it helps:) — LoLance, Jul 22 '19 at 09:14

How to use an msbuild CopyTask to copy a list of directories recursively

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