Creating a list of Folders in an ItemGroup using MSBuild

Question

I'm trying to build an ItemGroup in an MSBuild script which contains a list of folders directly below a given 'Root' folder. So - in this example...

+ Root folder ---- Sub Folder 1 -------- Sub-Sub Folder 1 -------- Sub-Sub Folder 2 ---- Sub Folder 2 ---- Sub Folder 3 

... I would want my ItemGroup to contain "Sub Folder 1", "Sub Folder 2" and "Sub Folder 3".

There may be a number of files at any point in the hierarchy, but I'm only interested in the folders.

Can anyone help!?

Answer 1

In MSBuild 4.0 this is possible:

<ItemGroup>   <Folders Include="$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories(&quot;$(RootFolder)&quot;))" /> </ItemGroup> 

Property Functions: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd633440.aspx

Answer 2

<PropertyGroup>     <RootFolder>tmp</RootFolder> </PropertyGroup> <ItemGroup>    <AllFiles Include="$(RootFolder)\**\*"/>    <OnlyDirs Include="@(AllFiles->'%(Directory)')"/> </ItemGroup> 

@(OnlyDirs) might contain duplicates, so you could either use the RemoveDuplicatesTask :

<Target Name="foo">    <RemoveDuplicates Inputs="@(OnlyDirs)">       <Output TaskParameter="Filtered" ItemName="UniqueDirs"/>    </RemoveDuplicates> </Target> 

or use CreateItem with batching for %(AllFiles.Identity) or with msbuild 3.5:

<Target Name="foo">    <ItemGroup>       <UniqueDirs Include="%(AllFiles.Directory)"/>    </ItemGroup> </Target>