MSBuild ItemGroup, excluding .svn directories and files within

Question

How can I construct a MSBuild ItemGroup to exclude .svn directories and all files within (recursively). I've got:

<ItemGroup> 
     <LibraryFiles Include="$(LibrariesReleaseDir)\**\*.*" Exclude=".svn" />
</ItemGroup>

At the moment, but this does not exclude anything!

score 64 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 02 '13 at 12:28

64

Thanks for your help, managed to sort it as follows:

<ItemGroup>
     <LibraryFiles Include="$(LibrariesReleaseDir)\**\*.*" 
                   Exclude="$(LibrariesReleaseDir)\**\.svn\**" />
</ItemGroup>

Turns out the pattern matching basically runs on files, so you have to exclude everything BELOW the .svn directories (.svn\\**) for MSBuild to exclude the .svn directory itself.

edited Oct 02 '13 at 12:28

Michael Haren

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answered Sep 16 '08 at 13:57

Kieran Benton

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@Kieran Benton: thanks for the update, I'm going to submit a connect.microsoft.com request to clarify the MSDN documentation. – user7116 Sep 16 '08 at 14:10
1

I notice that you also prefixed the Exclude value with "$(LibrariesReleaseDir)\\**\" (compared to the value in your OP). Is that significant? – Mar 24 '11 at 19:22

score 12 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 18 '12 at 11:37

So the issue is with chaining variables for some reason in msbuild. The following works for me, notice that I have to only use relative paths based on the MSBuildProjectDirectory variable.

<CreateItem Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\Client\Web\Foo.Web.UI\**\*.*"
            Exclude="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\Client\Web\Foo.Web.UI\**\.svn\**">
  <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="WebFiles" />
</CreateItem>

The following does not work:

<PropertyGroup>
    <WebProjectDir>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\Client\Web\Foo.Web.UI</WebProjectDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<CreateItem Include="$(WebProjectDir)\**\*.*"
            Exclude="$(WebProjectDir)\**\.svn\**">
  <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="WebFiles" />
</CreateItem>

Very strange! I just spent like 3 hrs on this one.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 19 '08 at 13:20

3

Here's an even better way to do it, truly recursively. I can't seem to get your solution to go more than 1 level deep:

<LibraryFiles  
    Include="$(LibrariesReleaseDir)**\*.*"  
    Exclude="$(LibrariesReleaseDir)**\.svn\**\*.*"/>

answered Dec 19 '08 at 13:20

Dave Markle

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Does this work on the .svn\entries file as well, given that there's no dot in the filename? – Mar 24 '11 at 19:21

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 30 '12 at 16:23

1

I've run into some glitches using the Include/Exclude approach, so here's something that's worked for me instead:

<ItemGroup>
    <MyFiles Include=".\PathToYourStuff\**" />
    <MyFiles Remove=".\PathToYourStuff\**\.svn\**" />
</ItemGroup>

answered Apr 30 '12 at 16:23

Anton Backer

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MSBuild ItemGroup, excluding .svn directories and files within

4 Answers4