[BUG]: DotNetCoreCLI@2 publish task always publishes all projects

[dloukola]

New issue checklist

• [X] I searched for existing GitHub issues
• [X] I read pipeline troubleshooting guide
• [X] I checked how to collect logs

Task name

DotNetCoreCLI@2

Task version

2

Issue Description

Issue: This task ALWAYS attempts to publish all executable projects in the solution, no matter what is specified in the "projects" argument. It runs them as separate commands per project.

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: "Build and Publish"
  inputs:
    command: publish
    projects: ${{ parameters.projects }}    
    arguments: '--configuration ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }} --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/publish_output'
    zipAfterPublish: true

Expected: Only the projects specified in the "projects" argument should be built and published.

Environment type (Please select at least one enviroment where you face this issue)

• [ ] Self-Hosted
• [X] Microsoft Hosted
• [ ] VMSS Pool
• [ ] Container

Azure DevOps Server type

dev.azure.com (formerly visualstudio.com)

Azure DevOps Server Version (if applicable)

No response

Operation system

windows-latest

Relevant log output

C:\Windows\system32\chcp.com 65001
Active code page: 65001
Info: .NET Core SDK/runtime 2.2 and 3.0 are now End of Life(EOL) and have been removed from all hosted agents. If you're using these SDK/runtimes on hosted agents, kindly upgrade to newer versions which are not EOL, or else use UseDotNet task to install the required version.

"C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe" publish [ProjectFilePath1] --configuration release --output D:\a\1\a\publish_output\[ProjectFileName1]
MSBuild version 17.9.4+90725d08d for .NET
  Determining projects to restore...
  Restored [ProjectFilePath1] (in 757 ms).

"C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe" publish [ProjectFilePath2] --configuration release --output D:\a\1\a\publish_output\[ProjectFileName2]
MSBuild version 17.9.4+90725d08d for .NET
  Determining projects to restore...
  Restored [ProjectFilePath2] (in 468 ms).

Full task logs with system.debug enabled

 [REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR INFORMATION] 

Repro steps

stages:
  - stage: Build
    displayName: Build

    jobs:
      - job: Build
        displayName: Build
        pool:
          vmImage: 'windows-latest'

        steps:
          - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
            displayName: "Build and Publish"
            inputs:
              command: publish
              projects: [PathToProjectFile]  
              arguments: '--configuration Release --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/publish_output'
              zipAfterPublish: true

[ivanduplenskikh]

Hi @dloukola thanks for reporting! The documentation does not indicate that this command works with the projects input. I'm not sure if this may be identified as a bug.

[dloukola]

I did notice that in the documentation. Is the intention of this task to publish all with no control of which project to publish at all?

[benborra]

Documentation clearly states a projects format in the example. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/reference/dotnet-core-cli-v2?view=azure-pipelines#publish-projects-to-specified-folder

Since this is just a wrapper around the 'dotnet publish' command and this can also anticipate a projects parameter, I'd suspect this to work. Trying with just running powershell commands in pipeline which does seem to work. Will continue with flow for the time being.