How can I use MSBuild Copy Task to Copy To Multiple Destination Folders?
What you are dealing with here is known as batching. I have blogged quite a bit about batching. You can find my blogs listed at http://sedotech.com/Resources#Batching. Batching is a way to do a loop without really doing one in MSBuild. You can split groups into values with a common metadata value. Metadata could be values like Identity, FullPath, Filename, etc. You can even make your own metadata. In any case when you batch on more than 1 value they are batched independently of each other. Take a look at the example that I created. The result of executing the target is shown after the script.
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Demo" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ItemsToCopy Include="src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt"/>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<DeployPath Include="C:\temp\path01\" />
<DeployPath Include="C:\temp\path02\" />
</ItemGroup>
<!--
Target batching is happening here because there is a
%() expression inside the Outputs attribute. So that
means that this target will be repeated once per
uinque batch of %(DeployPath.Identity). Identity is
the value that is passed in the Include= attribute.
Since we know there are two values we know that
this target will be executed twice, and on each
pass the DeployPath item will only look to contain
a single value. If there were duplicates then the list
could contain more than 1 value.
-->
<Target Name="Demo" Outputs="%(DeployPath.Identity)">
<Message Text="DeployPath.Identity: %(DeployPath.Identity)" />
<Message Text="======================================" Importance="high"/>
<Message Text="ItemsToCopy1: @(ItemsToCopy)|| DeployPath.Identity: %(DeployPath.Identity)" />
<Message Text="======================================" Importance="high"/>
<!--
In the next emample you are batching on both the DeployPath item list as well as
the ItemsToCopy item. When two batched items are in the same expression they are
matched individually, so you ge a value for DeployPath metadata but not ItemsToCopy
metadata. That is why your copy only copied to one location.
-->
<Message Text="ItemsToCopy2: @(ItemsToCopy)|| DeployPath.Identity-RecursiveDir: %(DeployPath.Identity)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
<Message Text="======================================" Importance="high"/>
<!--
In this example I create a property and assign it the value of
%(DeployPath.Identity). We know there will only be one such
value. Because there should only be one value with Identity
when this target is executed so it is safe to
convert item to property
Because we are not batching on both items we will get the values for both vaules
to be correct becuase the target is repeated for the other
DeployPath values.
-->
<PropertyGroup>
<_DeployPathIdentity>%(DeployPath.Identity)</_DeployPathIdentity>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="ItemsToCopy3: @(ItemsToCopy)|| _DeployPathIdentity-RecursiveDir: $(_DeployPathIdentity)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
<!--
I've always preferred to use DestinationFiles so my sample
below uses that. But you could change the target to use
DestinationFolder instead.
-->
<Copy SourceFiles="@(ItemsToCopy)"
DestinationFiles="@(ItemsToCopy->'$(_DeployPathIdentity)%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
</Project>
Output
Build started 9/10/2010 9:31:28 PM.
Project "I:\Development\My Code\Community\MSBuild\CopyFiles01.proj" on node 1 (default targets).
Demo:
DeployPath.Identity: C:\temp\path01\
======================================
ItemsToCopy1: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| DeployPath.I
dentity: C:\temp\path01\
======================================
ItemsToCopy2: || DeployPath.Identity-RecursiveDir: C:\temp\path01\\
ItemsToCopy2: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| DeployPath.I
dentity-RecursiveDir: \
======================================
ItemsToCopy3: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| _DeployPathI
dentity-RecursiveDir: C:\temp\path01\\
Creating directory "C:\temp\path01".
Copying file from "src\0001.txt" to "C:\temp\path01\0001.txt".
Copying file from "src\0002.txt" to "C:\temp\path01\0002.txt".
Copying file from "src\sub\sub-0001.txt" to "C:\temp\path01\sub-0001.txt".
Copying file from "src\sub\sub-0002.txt" to "C:\temp\path01\sub-0002.txt".
Demo:
DeployPath.Identity: C:\temp\path02\
======================================
ItemsToCopy1: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| DeployPath.I
dentity: C:\temp\path02\
======================================
ItemsToCopy2: || DeployPath.Identity-RecursiveDir: C:\temp\path02\\
ItemsToCopy2: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| DeployPath.I
dentity-RecursiveDir: \
======================================
ItemsToCopy3: src\0001.txt;src\0002.txt;src\sub\sub-0001.txt;src\sub\sub-0002.txt|| _DeployPathI
dentity-RecursiveDir: C:\temp\path02\\
Creating directory "C:\temp\path02".
Copying file from "src\0001.txt" to "C:\temp\path02\0001.txt".
Copying file from "src\0002.txt" to "C:\temp\path02\0002.txt".
Copying file from "src\sub\sub-0001.txt" to "C:\temp\path02\sub-0001.txt".
Copying file from "src\sub\sub-0002.txt" to "C:\temp\path02\sub-0002.txt".
Done Building Project "I:\Development\My Code\Community\MSBuild\CopyFiles01.proj" (default targets
).
Build succeeded.
The most important missing piece in the puzzle seems to be the Outputs attribute on the Target element without which you'll always only execute the target for one item of the whole list. The other piece is the new property you need to define on the way.
The solution to your problem might look like so:
<ItemGroup>
<DeployPath Include="\\server1\path" />
<DeployPath Include="\\server2\path" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Deploy" Outputs="%(DeployPath.Identity)">
<PropertyGroup>
<Destination>%(DeployPath.Identity)</Destination>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Processing: '$(Destination)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="@(ItemsToCopy)"
DestinationFolder="%(DeployPath.Identity)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
</Target>