So what I'm trying to do is build a .NET Core app with MSBuild, and have it create the web deploy folder but without automatically putting it in a zip file. I can do this for .NET Framework apps by using /p:WebPublishMethod=Package and /p:PackageAsSingleFile=false, it creates the same folder structure but without adding it to a zip file. However with a .NET Core app, it seems to ignore this flag and always zips up the final package.
The reason I do not want it zipped up is I need to add a number of "custom" files to the build before I can deploy it. I can't add the files during the build itself because we have a number of different clients, and they all share the same "base" software, and then the client specific files need to be added afterwords. So I want to build the "base" software, then be able to copy the output folder, add the client specific files, and then zip up that build to be deployed to IIS. This saves a tremendous amount of time because the alternative is doing a new build for each client, even though 95% of the software is the same.
So is there a different way to accomplish this with .NET Core apps?
I've been testing with MSBuild via command line. The solution has a mix of .NET Framework and .NET Core asp.net websites. This is what i'm running:
msbuild.exe "Solution.sln" /nologo /nr:false /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=false /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PreBuildEvent="" /p:PostBuildEvent="" /p:BasePackageLocation="C:\Temp\BuildOutput" /p:platform="any cpu" /p:configuration="release"
This works for the .NET Framework websites, but the .NET Core websites continue to be zipped up
And just a note that the BasePackageLocation is a custom property that sets the PackageLocation to "$(BasePackageLocation)\$(MSBuildProjectName)\" so that each website is put in its own sub-directory
So is there a different way to accomplish this with .NET Core apps?
Sorry but the answer could be negative. This is one issue about publishing .net core projects, it has been reported to Product Team, there might be a long way to go before the fix.
For web deploy package mode in .net core, you'll get WebApplication.deploy.cmd in the same folder where the .zip exists, many commands in the xx.cmd are associated with the xx.zip, so it's not recommended to manually do something to unzip it.
I suggest we can track the issue there(DC) and I will update the answer if there's any update or fix :)
Related
Is there an obfuscation tool that can work well on the exe and pdb files that result from a dotnet core single file publish?
I am using dotnet core single file publish with the command: dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release /p:PublishSingleFile=true. This works great in giving me just two neat files an exe and a pdb file, which I am able to give to a client to run my application.
However, I am still concerned about its ability to be decompiled.
I tried using ILSpy and JustCompile on both the files and they luckily could not be decompiled with these tools. Is it then that my files are safe, or it is that the tools have not yet caught up?
If the latter, what obfuscation tool can I use to protect these files? I attempted to use Obfuscar which did not work specifically on the single file publish outputs, the exe and pdb.
Any suggestions on the obfuscation tools to use for this?
Disclosure: I work for the Dotfuscator team at PreEmptive.
We have tested and verified that Dotfuscator Professional handles this scenario on both .NET Core 3 and .NET 5.
Specifically, you must use Dotfuscator Professional's MSBuild integration, which is now our recommended method of using Dotfuscator Professional for new projects. However, Dotfuscator will not update .pdb files on .NET Core or .NET 5, so you will not be able to debug builds which use Dotfuscator (e.g., Release builds). You should not ship .pdb files to untrusted users.
You can decompile .NET Core self-contained executables if you manually unpack them:
Can .Net Core 3 self-contained single executable be decompiled?
You would have to run the obfuscator as part of the build process, before the individual assemblies are compressed into the single file. That's probably possible if you add a custom MSBuild target that executes the obfuscator, and use the BeforeTargets attribute to integrate it at the correct point in the build process. But I haven't looked at the .NET core build system in detail.
You can use Obfuscar.
Use it in obj directory after target Compile and then copy obfuscated files to directory.(replace with original files)
Is this possible?
We currently have build definitions and release definitions setup and working for Web Applications. However we have a lot of older web site type projects and will not work with the current build and release definitions that we already have setup.
Is there a way for us to get the web site projects to work with the build and release definitions in TFS?
Thanks
Recently changed my steps for the build definition and now that build is successful but the release still fails.
Build definition Steps are:
Nuget Installer, Copy Files, and Copy and Publish Build Artifacts
Release definition Steps are:
Powershell on Target Machines, and Windows Machine Files Copy
As web site projects needs bin folder and TFS doesn't want them to be stored in source, the best way to achieve is to convert web site projects to web application.
Best practice: Converting to web application:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983476.aspx
But they made a workaround maybe you can try:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/tfssetup/2016/09/21/building-a-website-with-tfs-build/
In previous versions of what is now .NET Core, using the dnx toolchain, it was possible to run an application straight from source code, without compiling to a DLL on disk. This capability was also present on Azure, allowing you to edit code on the server and have those changes reflected in the live site.
The new dotnet CLI run command seems to automatically create the familiar bin and obj folders with compiled DLLs in them, and the publish process from Visual Studio to Azure now no longer includes the C# source, just the DLL.
Is it no longer possible with the new CLI and other tools to run .NET Core code without creating a DLL on disk?
Short David Fowler response:
Dynamic compilation is gone in RC2. It only exists for views now. There are no plans to bring it back.
Why?
Architectural challenges and changes require to implement it on both .NET Framework and .NET Core. We did it with dnx and there were some problems (like some things being completely broken with in memory assemblies) that we chose to just avoid.
I have an ASP.NET Web API project created on Windows using Visual Studio. How can I set this up for use with DNX/DNVM (on a Mac)?
Switching to Git solved the source control compatibility with TFS. But I wasn't able to find references to getting a project working across both these development environments.
I'm assuming as a first step the project will have to be migrated to ASP.NET 5/vNext but wondering other problems lurk around the corner with different project members using different environments.
I get an error when I run - git:(master):dnx . kestrel
As you mentioned yes you will have to migrate any namespace changes. I have a project that is developed across both. Also changing csproj files to xproj. Support is coming for some kind of interop between the different project types but its not here yet.
For build, publish, deploy from git without relying on VS publish capabilities or MSBuild you can follow my blog post here.
Basically you use DNU to publish and then kudu to deploy.
I normally do a file system publish on my asp web applications before deploying in them on the web root of my web server myself and visual studio packages my aspx pages seperately along with my apis and libraries into DLLs nicely.
I was wondering how to achieve the same effects with Team Build. As of now, I'm able to run build definitions with the default template and the output I'd gotten are just the binaries DLLs without any aspx pages being generated at all
http://postimg.org/image/occoo03zh/
However I'm getting just the DLLs without web pages in Team Build
http://postimg.org/image/mat7co6vp/
I had tried passing various MSBuild Arguments in hopes that it would have changed the output, but no luck thus far. Anyone knows the exact reasons and ways that I can resolve this? Is this output from TFS build normal?
It hasn't been resolved yet, any insights is very much appreciated.
Asp pages are not compiled, your compiled dll's will be outputted to the binaries directory, but your asp pages will be left in the sources directory. you will need to add a post build activity to copy your asp structure into the drop folder.
Can you confirm this by looking in the build workspace (on build server) and seeing if the structure is correct in the sources directory and that the dll's were created in the bin folder. if so you can then copy that whole structure.
You need to pass MSbuild some arguments to get it to generate the published website as you would see it with a file system publish. See here for something similar done with Visual Studio Online.
/p:OutDir=$(build.stagingDirectory) /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true