Configure MSBuild output path

Question

There is a Windows Forms (NET 3.5) project, foo.csproj, with localized resources files. I use MSBuild to build the project and create a deployment structure:

<MSBuild Projects="foo.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Release;OutputPath=..\deploy\foo" Targets="Build" /> 

It copies foo.exe and all localized DLL files to the deploy\foo folder, but I need localized DLL files to be copied into a separate folder. It should be:

• deploy\foo\foo.exe
• deploy\locales\ru-RU\foo.resources.dll
• deploy\locales\pt-BR\foo.resources.dll

Is there a way to configure MSBuild to copy EXE and DLL files to different folders?

Answer 1

Using MSBuild command line, you can specify the output path like below:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe <path_to_project_file> /t:Build /p:OutDir=c:\custom_build_out\;Configuration=PRODUCTION;Platform=x64 

Note:

1. If you change the order of specifying the OutDir property for /p, this doesn't work.
2. The OutDir property is for specifying a full path to an alternate directory. OutputPath is for a relative directory.
3. It has to have a project name + build configuration name in the custom build output path as MSBuild does not append these things to the OutDir.