How to transform this web.config section?

Question

I have following config for my mail:

<system.net>
    <mailSettings>
      <smtp from="[email protected]" deliveryMethod="SpecifiedPickupDirectory">
        <specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="C:/test"/>
        <network host="localhost" userName="" password=""/>
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>

This is my .Release version:

<system.net>
    <mailSettings>
      <smtp from="[email protected]" xdt:Transform="RemoveAttributes(deliveryMethod)">
        <network xdt:Transform="Replace" host="192.168.1.9" userName="" password="" />
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>

How do I remove

<specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="C:/test"/>

so it doesn't show in my .Release at all?

Also, I would like to remove other namespaces like System.Diagnostics completely. What is the syntax for doing so?

Answer 1

For specifiedPickupDirectory element this should work:

<specifiedPickupDirectory xdt:Transform="RemoveAll" />.

For System.Diagnostics:

<system.diagnostics xdt:Transform="RemoveAll"></system.diagnostics>

Answer 2

<system.net>
    <mailSettings>
      <smtp from="[email protected]" xdt:Transform="Replace">
        <network xdt:Transform="Replace" host="192.168.1.9" userName="" password="" />
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>

This will replace that entire tag with yours.. hope this is what you are looking for..

the good thing about this is that you dnt end up polluting your transform config with unnecessary remove commands like some of the answers stated here..

consider the case where you have more than one child tags..