MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected

You can read all about RecursiveDir here, but basically MSBuild supports a syntax for recursive directories that goes a little something like this:

C:\My Projects\**\*.xml

Basically this says, go recursively through every directory under C:\My Project and find me all the files with an .xml extension. Simple right? Ok, now imagine you structured all your projects in such a way that you kept certain xml files in certain subdirectory of each project... let's call it “Test Results”. So, if I want to grab all the test results for all projects, but not any other .xml files, I would do this:

C:\My Projects\**\Test Results\*.xml

Follow so far? Now consider the following example directory structure:

C:\My Projects
      |- Project A
            |- Test Results
                  |- 4-11-06.xml
                  |- 4-12-06.xml

Ok, the documentation states that the RecursiveDir metadata will be equivalent to the path that is expanded by the ** notation. When I use the first path declaration I end up with the following for RecursiveDir:

Project A\Test Results\

Great, that's just what I'd expect because the ** resulted in both the Project A and Test Results directory being selected. However if I use the second path I still end up with this for RecursiveDir:

Project A\Test Results\

Hmmm... not what I'd expect. I would have expected only Project A to be included in the RecursiveDir value because Test Results was an explicit part of the path.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 9:27 AM

Your Comments.

# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected

The documentation isn't totally accurate, or at least could be more accurate. %(RecursiveDir) is everything from the ** up to the slash before the filename part. It's really designed for one purpose, and that is to recursively reproduce a tree. Imagine I have a tree like this (c:\temp\foo\bar\1 and c:\temp\foo\bar\bar\2)

C:\TEMP
¦
+---foo
+---bar
¦ 1
¦
+---bar
2

And I wish to copy the files that are within a folder named bar to c:\baz, preserving their relative locations.

So I create this project;

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Foo Include="c:\temp\**\bar\*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="build">
<Copy SourceFiles="@(Foo)" DestinationFiles="@(Foo->'c:\baz\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)')"/>
</Target>
</Project>

And build it:

Target build:
Creating directory "c:\baz\foo\bar".
Copying file from "c:\temp\foo\bar\1" to "c:\baz\foo\bar\1".
Creating directory "c:\baz\foo\bar\bar".
Copying file from "c:\temp\foo\bar\bar\2" to "c:\baz\foo\bar\bar\2".

Giving this final result:

C:\BAZ
+---foo
+---bar
¦ 1
¦
+---bar
2

Does this example help explain why %(RecursiveDir) includes directories after the **? By modifying my project slightly, I could rename the files, too.

I'll see if I can get the docs fixed, though.

Left by Dan (msbuild team) at 4/13/2006 9:44 AM

# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected

Oh, my diagrams didn't come out right, but hopefully this is clear enough (if you try it out)

Left by Dan (msbuild team) at 4/13/2006 9:46 AM

# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected

Dan,

Thanks, it's just not what I expected with the wording in the docs, but I totally get it.

It would be cool for future releases to add a new bit of meta-data that does contain only the part of the path represented by the **. Not sure what to call it... ;)

Cheers,
Drew

Left by Drew Marsh at 4/13/2006 11:24 AM

# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected
The documentation isn't totally accurate, or at least could be more accurate. %(RecursiveDir) is everything from the ** up to the slash before the filename part. It's really designed for one purpose, and that is to recursively reproduce a tree. Imagine I have a tree like this (c:\temp\foo\bar\1 and c:\temp\foo\bar\bar\2)

C:\TEMP
¦
+---foo
+---bar
¦ 1
¦
+---bar
2

And I wish to copy the files that are within a folder named bar to c:\baz, preserving their relative locations.

So I create this project;

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Foo Include="c:\temp\**\bar\*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="build">
<Copy SourceFiles="@(Foo)" DestinationFiles="@(Foo->'c:\baz\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)')"/>
</Target>
</Project>

And build it:

Target build:
Creating directory "c:\baz\foo\bar".
Copying file from "c:\temp\foo\bar\1" to "c:\baz\foo\bar\1".
Creating directory "c:\baz\foo\bar\bar".
Copying file from "c:\temp\foo\bar\bar\2" to "c:\baz\foo\bar\bar\2".

Giving this final result:

C:\BAZ
+---foo
+---bar
¦ 1
¦
+---bar
2

Does this example help explain why %(RecursiveDir) includes directories after the **? By modifying my project slightly, I could rename the files, too.

I'll see if I can get the docs fixed, though.

Left by Dan (msbuild team) at 4/13/2006 9:44 AM
# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected
Oh, my diagrams didn't come out right, but hopefully this is clear enough (if you try it out)

Left by Dan (msbuild team) at 4/13/2006 9:46 AM
# re: MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected
Dan,

Thanks, it's just not what I expected with the wording in the docs, but I totally get it.

It would be cool for future releases to add a new bit of meta-data that does contain only the part of the path represented by the **. Not sure what to call it... ;)

Cheers,
Drew

Left by Drew Marsh at 4/13/2006 11:24 AM

Jump Menu

So what are all these buttons for?

Personalize

Text Size

Layout

Navigation Position

hacked.brain

Ramblings from a compromised mind.

MSBuild's RecursiveDir Metadata Not Exactly What I Expected

Your Comments.

Archives

Post Categories

Image Galleries

Syndicate