MSBuild: How do I CopyFiles to DestinationFolder that is determined by output of executing a command?

Question

I need to copy a specific git hook file into the local repo on MSBuild to enforce some client side validation which work fine in general, however, I noticed there are exceptional cases where worktrees are setup slightly different from the suggested config. This can be get around if the DestPath below is acquire when the task is being execute from git rev-parse --git-path hooks.

<Target Name="CopyFiles" AfterTargets="Build">
  <Copy SourceFiles="@(HookFiles)"
        DestinationFolder="$(DestPath)" 
        OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="True"
/>

My guess is to add an Exec task in front of Copy to collect the variable but I am not sure how to make the output available in the Copy task.

<Exec Command="git rev-parse --git-path hooks"/>

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '21 at 02:19

Thanks to answer in Gathering outputs from an MSBuild exec task and I managed to handle it by executing the command and redirect the output to a text file.

<PropertyGroup>
 <OutputFile>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)temp.txt</OutputFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<Exec Command="git rev-parse --path-format=absolute --git-path hooks > &quot;$(OutputFile)&quot;" />

Then read the value from the text file.

<ReadLinesFromFile File="$(OutputFile)">
  <Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="OutputLines"/>
</ReadLinesFromFile>

And substitute back to the task.

<Copy SourceFiles="@(GitHookFiles)"
      DestinationFolder="@(OutputLines)" 
      OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="True"
/>

And finally clean up the file.

<Delete Files="$(OutputFile)" />

MSBuild: How do I CopyFiles to DestinationFolder that is determined by output of executing a command?

1 Answers1