Macros $(DevEnvDir), $(SolutionFileName), $(SolutionPath), $(SolutionDir), $(SolutionName), $(SolutionExt) are not defined during publish. Worked fine during build.

[stachu99]

Tested on MS VS 2017 Community 2017, version 15.4.4, MS .NET Framework 4.7.02046.

A part of the code in .csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
     <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.All" Version="2.0.3" />
  </ItemGroup>

There are targets with events executed after targets: BeforePublish, AfterPublish and used macros are not defined during publish.

<Target Name="BeforePublishEvents" AfterTargets="BeforePublish">
  <Exec Command="echo Target: BeforePublishEvents executed AfterTarget: BeforePublish" />
  <Exec Command="echo TargetDir: $(TargetDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo ProjectDir: $(ProjectDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo DevEnvDir: $(DevEnvDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionFileName: $(SolutionFileName)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionPath: $(SolutionPath)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionDir: $(SolutionDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionName: $(SolutionName)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionExt: $(SolutionExt)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterPublishEvents" AfterTargets="AfterPublish">
  <Exec Command="echo Target: AfterPublishEvents executed AfterTarget: AfterPublish" />
  <Exec Command="echo TargetDir: $(TargetDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo ProjectDir: $(ProjectDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo DevEnvDir: $(DevEnvDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionFileName: $(SolutionFileName)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionPath: $(SolutionPath)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionDir: $(SolutionDir)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionName: $(SolutionName)" />
  <Exec Command="echo SolutionExt: $(SolutionExt)" />
</Target>

On a publish output are undefined macros: $(DevEnvDir), $(SolutionFileName), $(SolutionPath), $(SolutionDir), $(SolutionName), $(SolutionExt). These macros are undefined only while publish is executed. These macros are defined and work fine while a build is executed and in .csproj are targets with an option AfterTarget and targets BeforeBuild, PreBuildEvent, PostBuildEvent, AfterBuild. Other targets like $(OutDir), $(ProjectPath), $(ProjectName) are defined and work fine in publish and build. Isn't macros be defined during publish as during build?

Restoring NuGet packages... To prevent NuGet from restoring packages during build, open the Visual Studio Options dialog, click on the Package Manager node and uncheck 'Allow NuGet to download missing packages during build.' 1>------ Build started: Project: TradingCore, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------ 1>TradingCore -> D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\TradingCore.dll 2>------ Publish started: Project: TradingCore, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------ Connecting to D:\Projects!Publish\Trading\Production\Release\TradingCore... echo Target: BeforePublishEvents executed AfterTarget: BeforePublish Target: BeforePublishEvents executed AfterTarget: BeforePublish echo TargetDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\ TargetDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\ echo ProjectDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\ ProjectDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\ echo DevEnvDir: Undefined DevEnvDir: Undefined echo SolutionFileName: Undefined SolutionFileName: Undefined echo SolutionPath: Undefined SolutionPath: Undefined echo SolutionDir: Undefined SolutionDir: Undefined echo SolutionName: Undefined SolutionName: Undefined echo SolutionExt: Undefined SolutionExt: Undefined C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Roslyn\csc.exe /noconfig /unsafe- /checked- /nowarn:1701,1702,1705,1701,1702,2008 /nostdlib+ /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:TRACE;RELEASE;NETCOREAPP2_0 /errorendlocation /preferreduilang:en-US /reference:C:\Users\st....\AppData\Local\Temp.NETCoreApp,Version=v2.0.AssemblyAttributes.cs" obj\Release\netcoreapp2.0\TradingCore.AssemblyInfo.cs /warnaserror+:NU1605 TradingCore -> D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\TradingCore.dll "dotnet" exec --runtimeconfig "D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\TradingCore.runtimeconfig.json" --depsfile "D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\TradingCore.deps.json" "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\NuGetFallbackFolder\microsoft.aspnetcore.mvc.razor.viewcompilation\2.0.1\build\netstandard2.0\Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.ViewCompilation.dll" @"obj\Release\netcoreapp2.0\microsoft.aspnetcore.mvc.razor.viewcompilation.rsp" TradingCore -> D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\obj\Release\netcoreapp2.0\PubTmp\Out\ echo Target: AfterPublishEvents executed AfterTarget: AfterPublish Target: AfterPublishEvents executed AfterTarget: AfterPublish echo TargetDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\ TargetDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\bin\Release\netcoreapp2.0\ echo ProjectDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\ ProjectDir: D:\Projects\Trading\TradingCore\ echo DevEnvDir: Undefined DevEnvDir: Undefined echo SolutionFileName: Undefined SolutionFileName: Undefined echo SolutionPath: Undefined SolutionPath: Undefined echo SolutionDir: Undefined SolutionDir: Undefined echo SolutionName: Undefined SolutionName: Undefined echo SolutionExt: Undefined SolutionExt: Undefined Web App was published successfully file:///D:/Projects/!Publish/Trading/Production/Release/TradingCore

========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== ========== Publish: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

[Pilchie]

@livarcocc - is this also an SDK issue? In general, I don't think these are reliably set in command line builds anyway, so it's probably best not to depend on them...

[livarcocc]

The SDK does not set these properties. It is set somewhere else I believe.

@nguerrera can you check?

[Pilchie]

@stachu99 my guess is that this is related to https://github.com/dotnet/project-system/issues/2982. In the case where they are undefined, it's because they are being launched by the dependency from "dotnet publish" to build, but outside of the IDE, these variables are not set.

[nguerrera]

cc @mlorbetske A publish initiated from VS should have the same properties as a build initiated by VS. I have seen that publish does not do this for SolutionDir and it actually triggers different behavior in the SDK resolver. If that's what's happening here, I think the VS code that kicks of publish should be changed to match how VS kicks off build.

[mlorbetske]

@vijayrkn

[dustinlacewell]

What's going on with this issue...?

[nguerrera]

Ping, @vijayrkn This seems to be an issue with Publish in VS not setting the same properties on build as a regular build.

[vijayrkn]

We do pass all the properties that we get from the project system during publish. I see that this issue was created an year before. Does this still happen?

[dustinlacewell]

You definitely don't get things like $(SolutionDir) when doing dotnet build or dotnet publish in my experience. It would be super great if dotnet and Visual Studio were unified.

[nguerrera]

You should get $(SolutionDir) and the like on the command line if you are building a .sln, but not if you are building an individual project. Projects don't know what solution they are in and they could be in more than one so there's no real way to make that just work if you are operating on a single project on the command line.