Which MSBuild target is used for c# code generation?

TheButlah 0
Viewed 34

I have a custom script that generates C# source files to be included as source files for the library being built. I am currently doing something like this in my .csproj:

<!-- This automatically handles code generation needed by this library -->
<Target Name="codegen" BeforeTargets="GenerateAdditionalSources">
  <Message Text="Running code generators" Importance="high" />
  <Exec command="echo This will be a script that generates .cs files" />
</Target>

This calls the script and generates the .cs files in a generated directory under my project folder, but those files aren't seen by msbuild until the next time dotnet build is run.

What target should I use to avoid needing to re-run dotnet build?

msbuild c#
1 Answers

What you actually want to ask is how to add your newly generated files to the set of files that are passed to the compiler.

You files need to be added to the Compile Item collection.

In your codegen target after the exec task, add an Include of the generated .cs files to the Compile Item.

Example:

    <ItemGroup>
      <Compile Include="generated\*.cs" KeepDuplicates="false" />
    </ItemGroup>

To be more readable, you might consider using BeforeCompile on your target.

  <Target Name="codegen" BeforeTargets="BeforeCompile">

The GenerateAdditionalSources target itself is actually defined with BeforeTargets="BeforeCompile". Using BeforeCompile explains your intent that the codegen target is performed before compiling.

So that MSBuild can determine if codegen needs to be performed you should consider adding Inputs and Outputs to the target.

Jonathan Dodds0
Related