Build target used by Visual Studio to do Incremental Build via msbuild command line

Question

I created a task in our C# Projects to auto-version projects when they are built (changes are made) in release mode. The versioning part works perfectly. However, all the projects are being built regardless if the project actually changed when done from command line. This causes projects to be versioned unnecessarily. Building in Visual Studio works, unchanged projects are not built, however we made a tool to do automated build using msbuild.exe and are using this as a temporary fix while we work on Bamboo and that method always does a blind build, even if there are no changes to the project. I need to be able to identify if changes were made to the project.

Something like

'$(wasSourceUpdated)' == 'true' or some kind of target condition to use on my custom versioning target.

Here is a sample of my versioning task in our projects

<Import Project="..\..\DXT.BuildTasks\Targets\DXTAutoIncrementVersion.targets" Condition="Exists('..\..\DXT.BuildTasks\Targets\DXTAutoIncrementVersion.targets') And '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' And '$(DeployOnBuild)' != 'true'" />

I also checked this and this articles to no avail.

EDIT

I need the task to run before the build is actually executed in order to stamp the generated assemblies with the new versions

EDIT 2

What I'm really looking for is the condition to run CoreCompile or to run CoreCompile again when I detect that the assembly was updated

What I've tried so far:

<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
    <RunPostBuildEvent>OnOutputUpdated</RunPostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
    <_AssemblyTimestampBeforeCompile>%(IntermediateAssembly.ModifiedTime)</_AssemblyTimestampBeforeCompile>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
    <_AssemblyTimestampAfterCompile>%(IntermediateAssembly.ModifiedTime)</_AssemblyTimestampAfterCompile>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
    <_ProjectVersioned Condition="'$(_ProjectVersioned)'==''">false</_ProjectVersioned>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="IncrementVersionBeforeBuild" AfterTargets="CoreCompile" Condition="'$(_AssemblyTimestampBeforeCompile)'!='$(_AssemblyTimestampAfterCompile)' and '$(_ProjectVersioned)' == 'false'">
 <Message Text="Before $(_AssemblyTimestampBeforeCompile) After $(_AssemblyTimestampAfterCompile)" Importance="High"/>
    <IncrementVersion
  ProjectPath="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)"
    VersionRule="3.3.0.+"
    FileName="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
    </IncrementVersion>
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
    <TaskPath>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\Tasks\AutoVersionTask\AutoVersionTask\bin\Debug</TaskPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- Sample import for projects
<Import Project="..\..\DXT.BuildTasks\Targets\DXTAutoIncrementVersion.targets" Condition="Exists('..\..\DXT.BuildTasks\Targets\DXTAutoIncrementVersion.targets') And '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' And '$(DeployOnBuild)' != 'true'" />
-->
<UsingTask AssemblyFile="$(TaskPath)\AutoVersionTask.dll" TaskName="AutoVersionTask.IncrementVersion" />

<PropertyGroup>
    <_ProjectVersioned>true</_ProjectVersioned>
</PropertyGroup>

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

So Thanks to Lance for getting me to understand MSBuild to the point that I understand the issue way better.

After a long time researching the default task, I ran upon this question that had the perfect solution to my issue. After applying the fix the versioning task now only runs when changes are made to the msbuild code.

The inputs and outputs are the same as the CoreCompile target and ensures that the task is only run if there were changes to the source

Here is the target I ran that works:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project>
    <PropertyGroup>
        <CoreCompileDependsOn>
        $(CoreCompileDependsOn);
        IncrementVersionBeforeBuild
        </CoreCompileDependsOn>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Target Name="IncrementVersionBeforeBuild"
            Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);
            @(Compile);                               
            @(_CoreCompileResourceInputs);
            $(ApplicationIcon);
            $(AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile);
            @(ReferencePath);
            @(CompiledLicenseFile);
            @(EmbeddedDocumentation); 
            $(Win32Resource);
            $(Win32Manifest);
            @(CustomAdditionalCompileInputs)"
            Outputs="@(DocFileItem);
             @(IntermediateAssembly);
             @(_DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath);                 
             $(NonExistentFile);
             @(CustomAdditionalCompileOutputs)"
    >
        <Message Text="Version Task running" Importance="High"/>
        <IncrementVersion
      ProjectPath="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)"
        VersionRule="3.3.0.+"
        FileName="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
        </IncrementVersion>
    </Target>
    <PropertyGroup>
        <TaskPath>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\Tasks\AutoVersionTask\AutoVersionTask\bin\Debug</TaskPath>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <UsingTask AssemblyFile="$(TaskPath)\AutoVersionTask.dll" TaskName="AutoVersionTask.IncrementVersion" />

    <PropertyGroup>
        <_ProjectVersioned>true</_ProjectVersioned>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Answer 2

Normaly, we can add the script below into .csproj file:

  <PropertyGroup>
    <RunPostBuildEvent>OnOutputUpdated</RunPostBuildEvent>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="AutoVersionWhenBuild" AfterTargets="CoreBuild"
          Condition="'$(_AssemblyTimestampBeforeCompile)'!='$(_AssemblyTimestampAfterCompile)'">
    <Message Importance="high" Text="Auto-version begins when changes are made!"/>
    <!--<AutoVersionTask>Do your auto-version task here.</AutoVersionTask>-->
  </Target>

It will be called during the build when changes are really made to the project. See this similar issue.

As for your situation:

It seems your tasks and target comes from the targets file DXTAutoIncrementVersion.targets,you can open that file and change the target in it to the format above.

In addition: Please check the relationship between tasks, targets and .targets file.

1.MSBuild uses tasks to perform these actions.

2.Targets group tasks together.

3.MSBuild includes several .targets files that contain items, properties, targets, and tasks for common scenarios.

So you can either modify your auto-version target in the xx.targets file, or use the script above, and call the auto-version task in the AutoVersionWhenBuild target. Hope it helps:)