Including a custom file in your build/publish for a .net core application

Question

How do I include a custom file that is in the root of my project dir to be put into my build/publish folder?

If its a .json file it seems to come through automatically (probably because of .NET config being json)

I have a custom config file that is text based with a .txt extension.

I've tried:

<ItemGroup>
    <DotnetPublishFiles Include="customfile.txt"></DotnetPublishFiles>
</ItemGroup>

And

<ItemGroup>
   <Content Include="./*.txt" />
</ItemGroup>

As well as

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="customfile.txt" />
</ItemGroup>

Also:

<_CustomFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/customfile.txt" />
    <DotNetPublishFiles Include="@(_CustomFiles)">
    </DotNetPublishFiles>
 </ItemGroup>

Nothing seems to work...

I'm using Visual Studio Code and .NET Core 3.1.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Update="customfile.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>

JSON (as well as other suitable) files are treated the same way by SDK style projects, so for your own custom files you need to ask MSBuild explicitly.