How to find the location of a .targets file?

How to find the location of a .targets file?

• Aravindalochana

  Now, I wish it worked the way you decribed. Life would be much simpler if paths were always relative to the file they were in. It's not directly related to this, but we had similar problems with relative paths in project references. If a project referenced and project that referenced a project, we got errors that the most deeply nested reference could not be found be cause the relative path to the .csproj was being interpreted based on the initial project and not the middle project.
  
  

• Thierry Tuo

  Thanks for the informative reply. It would still be nice to be able to do this in the straight ItemGroup syntax, but this is certainly better than nothing!

  Many thanks,

  Taylor

  
  

• garry_gill

  Yes, I tried something like this. It doesn't work for me. The output is:
  
  Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 2.0.50727.42
  [Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.42]
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2005. All rights reserved.
  
  Build started 2/10/2006 1:40:13 PM.
  __________________________________________________
  Project "C:\temp\msbuildtest\One\Two\YourProject.proj" (default targets):
  
  Target Print:
  Command line location: C:\temp\msbuildtest\One\Two\utils\CommandLine.txt
  Command line location: C:\temp\msbuildtest\One\Two\utils\CommandLine.txt
  
  Build succeeded.
  0 Warning(s)
  0 Error(s)
  
  Time Elapsed 00:00:00.01
  
  I believe this is related to this statement in the MSBuild documentation (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/92x05xfs.aspx):
  
  All relative paths in imported projects are interpreted relative to the directory of the importing project. Therefore, if a project file is imported into several project files in different locations, the relative paths in the imported project file will be interpreted differently for each importing project.
  
  

• Robby Economides

  I was wanting to do the same thing - determine the location of the very file I am in - not the importing file. I think your solution is clever, but I keep thinking there has to be a cleaner way than this! There is no equilvalent property for THIS very file or this very directory like MSBuildProjectDirectory Is there any internal MSBuild state that is exposed in the API that I could examine to determine which file is currently running Maybe then I could write a cleaner task that would tell me which file or directory I was really in

  Many thanks,

  Taylor

  
  

• Anu Viswan

  After looking into this a bit more, there is a much better way. You can get the location of the current project file from the task using the BuildEngine.ProjectFileOfTaskNode property. From that you can determine the true directory that you are in. Here is the new task:
  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Text;
  using Microsoft.Build.Framework;
  using Microsoft.Build.Utilities;
  namespace CurrentDirectory
  {
  public class CurrentDir : AppDomainIsolatedTask
  {
  private ITaskItem currentDir;
  [Output]
  public ITaskItem CurrentDirectory
  {
  get
  {
  return this.currentDir;
  }
  }
  public override bool Execute()
  {
  System.IO.FileInfo projFile = new System.IO.FileInfo(base.BuildEngine.ProjectFileOfTaskNode);
  this.currentDir = new TaskItem(projFile.Directory.FullName);
  
  return true;
  }
  }
  }
  
  
  I've posted a blog related to this, and all the related files are available there as well if you'd like to download http://www.sedodream.com/PermaLink,guid,020fd1af-fb17-4fc9-8336-877c157eb2b4.aspx
  
  Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
  www.sedodream.com
  
  

• Chris Peeters

  Hi,
  Wow, I don't think I've screwed up like that in quite a while, sorry for that. But I do have a workaround for you. Its kind of a trick.
  First create this task:
  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Text;
  using Microsoft.Build.Framework;
  using Microsoft.Build.Utilities;
  namespace CurrentDirectory
  {
  public class CurrentDir : Task
  {
  private ITaskItem currentDir;
  [Output]
  public ITaskItem CurrentDirectory
  {
  get
  {
  return this.currentDir;
  }
  }
  public override bool Execute()
  { System.IO.FileInfo assemblyFile = new System.IO.FileInfo(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
  this.currentDir = new TaskItem( assemblyFile.Directory.FullName );
  return true;
  }
  }
  }
  
  
  Build this into an assembly, I called it CurrentDirectory.dll
  
  Place this task into the directory that you need to get to. In the SharedTargets.targets file use it to get to the path.
  
  <Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <!--
  <ItemGroup>
  <CommandLineUtil Include="utils\CommandLine.txt"/>
  </ItemGroup>
  -->
  
  <UsingTask AssemblyFile="CurrentDirectory.dll" TaskName="CurrentDir"/>
  <PropertyGroup>
  <CommandLineFullPath>@(CommandLineUtil->'%(FullPath)')</CommandLineFullPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  
  
  <Target Name="SharedTarget">
  <CreateItem Include="utils\CommanLine.txt">
  <Output ItemName="CommandLineUtil" TaskParameter="Include"/>
  </CreateItem>
  
  <CurrentDir>
  <Output ItemName="CurrentDir" TaskParameter="CurrentDirectory" />
  </CurrentDir>
  
  
  <Message Text="Inside the shared target" Importance="high"/>
  <Message Text="Location: @(CurrentDir->'%(Fullpath)')"/>
  </Target>
  
  </Project>
  
  Here is the output:
  __________________________________________________
  C:\temp\MSBuildDirectoryExample\One\Two>msbuild YourProject.proj /t:sharedtarget
  
  Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 2.0.50727.42
  [Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.42]
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2005. All rights reserved.
  
  Build started 2/10/2006 3:16:04 PM.
  __________________________________________________
  Project "C:\temp\MSBuildDirectoryExample\One\Two\YourProject.proj" (sharedtarget
  target(s)):
  
  Target SharedTarget:
  Inside the shared target
  Location: C:\temp\MSBuildDirectoryExample\Shared
  
  Build succeeded.
  0 Warning(s)
  0 Error(s)
  
  
  Obviously this is not the ideal resolution, and there may be better ways. Just threw this together, if this doesn't work for you let me know. I'll update that zip file later 2nite.
  
  Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
  www.sedodream.com
  

  
  

  
  
  

• Saikalyan

  This post contained incorrect information
  

  
  
  

• Alberto Pardo

  Perhaps there will be a more intuitive method in the next release. I know that others have asked about this very same topic previously.

  Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
  www.sedodream.com

  
  

• Jogesh Grover

  Not sure if this is what you're trying to do, but the problem I had that was similar was Trying to build several child projects from a main but the child projects referenced dll's using relative paths, and thos paths weren't valid from my main build file.

  I had to manually edit the child project file and change the reference like so:

  <ItemGroup>
  <Reference Include="log4net">
  <Name>log4net</Name>
  <HintPath>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\..\SharedLibs\log4net\log4net.dll</HintPath>
  </Reference>
  <Reference Include="System">
  <Name>System</Name>
  </Reference>
  <Reference Include="System.Data">
  <Name>System.Data</Name>
  </Reference>
  <Reference Include="System.Xml">
  <Name>System.XML</Name>
  </Reference>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\Castle.Services.Logging\Castle.Services.Logging-vs2005.csproj">
  <Name>Castle.Services.Logging</Name>
  <Project>{1AFAEC30-152C-43E2-B37C-E713419D20B8}</Project>
  <Package>{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</Package>
  </ProjectReference>
  </ItemGroup>

  Now when I do my build the path will resolve correctly...it would be wonderful if vs would give you some measure of control as to how it adds the reference like letting you specify variables or something similar

  
  
• How to find the location of a .targets file?