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Extract git branch name while building C# project

While building the C# project locally/CI server, I wanted to control the NuGet package reference in the .csproj file. If the developer is building a C# project on github master branch (locally/CI server) I would like to add RC build NuGet package reference otherwise PRE releases NuGet package reference. How to do this? Can someone please assist me?
Some thoughts like -
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
<GitBranch>$(GitBranch.Trim())</GitBranch>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="GitInfo" Version="2.2.0" />
</ItemGroup>
<Choose>
<When Condition="$(GitBranch) == 'master'">
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Data.Account.Domain.Messaging" Version="1.0.0-rc*" IncludePrerelease="true" />
</ItemGroup>
</When>
<Otherwise>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Data.Account.Domain.Messaging" Version="1.0.0-pre*" IncludePrerelease="true" />
</ItemGroup>
</Otherwise>
</Choose>
</Project>

You could read the git branch from the .git/HEAD file. Naive implementation like
<PropertyGroup>
<GitBranch>$([System.IO.File]::ReadAlltext('$(MsBuildThisFileDirectory)\.git\HEAD').Replace('ref: refs/heads/', '').Trim())</GitBranch>
</PropertyGroup>
You might want to adjust how you get the path to that file, and perhaps use something more robust (e.g. if you just checkout a random commit in git, the file won't contain a branch name but a commit SHA)

You could also use variable $(GitRoot) from GitInfo itself to build the path, just a small adaption to the existing code but helped for my case where I had to deal with nested folders.
<PropertyGroup>
<GitBranch>$([System.IO.File]::ReadAlltext('$(GitRoot)\.git\HEAD').Replace('ref: refs/heads/', '').Trim())</GitBranch>
</PropertyGroup>

Compile .bond files of projects using my NuGet package

I have a NuGet package with a .bond file. Users of my package can derive their Bond structs from the structs in my package's .bond file.
I want the user's Bond files to be compiled when they include my NuGet package. Today they must include my NuGet and the Bond.CSharp NuGet. But, my NuGet already has a reference to Bond.CSharp.
How can I author my package so that the consumers do not need to have their own <PackageReference Include="Bond.CSharp" ... />?

Bond codegen is run from the Bond.CSharp's build targets.
By default, the build targets of packages you consume do not flow to your consumers. The default value of a PackageReference's PrivateAssets is "contentfiles;analyzers;build".
You can override this behavior in your csproj's PackageReference:
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Bond.CSharp" Version="[9.0.3]">
<!-- removing "build" from default so that consumers also run codegen -->
<PrivateAssets>contentfiles;analyzers</PrivateAssets>
</PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
I assume you are compiling the base struct into an assembly in your package. Bond codegen assumes that the generated code and the runtime library exactly match, so I've used an exact match version bound in the PackageReference: [9.0.3]
You said that you want your consumers to be able to derive from your Bond structs, so you'll probably also want to configure their BondImportPath to include the .bond file inside your package. To do this, you need to
make sure the .bond files are included in the package and
add a package .props file to set the BondImportPath to the package directory with said .bond files.
The make sure the .bond files are included in the package, add something like this to your package's .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="bond/**">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>build/bond/</PackagePath>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
This assumes that your .bond files live in a bond\ subdirectory.
To automatically add something to BondImportPath, you need to add a package .props file that will be automatically imported by consumers. Create a file named ExactNameOfPackage.props with the following content:
<Project>
<ItemGroup>
<BondImportDirectory Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)bond" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
This .props file also needs to be packed. Add this to your project's .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="ExactNameOfPackage.props">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>build/</PackagePath>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
Now, the consumer can just use a PackageReference. Any .bond files in their project will be compiled automatically, and they can use import "you-file.bond" to refer to a .bond file in your package.
Build assets do not flow transitively. The NuGet 5+ buildTransitive feature looks like it solves this, but I haven't experimented with it.
Here are the complete project files I used. The complete code is in my GitHub repository, export-bond-file-nuget.
lib-with-bond.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
<PackageId>LibWithBond</PackageId>
<Version>1.2.0</Version>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="LibWithBond.props">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>build/</PackagePath>
</None>
<None Include="bond/**">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>build/bond/</PackagePath>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Bond.CSharp" Version="[9.0.3]">
<PrivateAssets>contentfiles;analyzers</PrivateAssets>
</PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
LibWithBond.props
<Project>
<ItemGroup>
<BondImportDirectory Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)bond" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
consume-lib.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- I had a local NuGet source pointing to the output of running
`dotnet pack` on lib-with-bond.csproj -->
<PackageReference Include="LibWithBond" Version="1.2.0" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
I was able to make this work for a PackageReference. My initial experiments making it work for ProjectReference were not successful, and I ran out of time to work more on this answer.

Visual Studio Solution(.sln) / C#: Start a project with another project's dll as parameter

is it possible to run a project with an argument of a dll from another project?
My project structure and dependencies look like this
As you can see there are no direct dependencies between a mod and the game implementation directly.
When I click on Debug -> Start New Instance, F5 or use the button () I want to run ./ExampleGameInEngineA.exe GameModC.dll.
I know that you can set an Executable in the project settings
But I am looking for a more generic way that is automatically compiling ExampleGameInEngineA and putting it in the same directory as GameModC.
Hardcoded directory paths are also not great (tho I could use relative paths for this).
For testing purposes we can safely ignore GameInEngineB but I still don't want any hard references to GameInEngineA.

Okay, I kinda solved it by myself by using a PreBuild-Event-Target:
GameModC.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.1</TargetFramework>
<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
<RunPostBuildEvent>OnOutputUpdated</RunPostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="PreBuild" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent" Condition="">
<MSBuild Projects="$(SolutionDir)ExampleGameInEngineA\ExampleGameInEngineA.csproj..." />
<ItemGroup>
<GameEngineAOutputFolder Include="$(SolutionDir)ExampleGameInEngineA\$(OutDir)*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(GameEngineAOutputFolder)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="false" />
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\GameApi\GameModdingApi.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
GameInEngineA.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\GameApi\GameModdingApi.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Please note the AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath to remove the netcoreapp3.1 or netstandard2.1.
But there are still problems with the solution:
It does not recognize changes made in ExampleGameInEngineA (manual rebuild required)
The Condition when to add ExampleGameInEngineA is always met (because I have no good idea for a condition)
I am still open for better solutions.

Filter CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies output

I set CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies to true and want to filter the output. So I used the following code:
<Target Name="FilterCopyLocalItems" AfterTargets="ResolveLockFileCopyLocalProjectDeps">
<ItemGroup>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Remove="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(Filename)' == 'Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions'" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
But this code did not work, how can I put a filter on the output?

Your target FilterCopyLocalItems is to remove the reference dll from the output folder.
I wonder if you means that the target cannot be executed.
For me, I used the below xml code in my net core project which installed the nuget package Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>true</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="FilterCopyLocalItems" AfterTargets="ResolveLockFileCopyLocalProjectDeps">
<ItemGroup>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Remove="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(Filename)' == 'Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions'" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" Version="3.1.6" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
You can find the target under the Detailed output build log.
Enter Tools-->Options-->Projects and Solutions-->Build and Run-->set MSBuild project build output verbosity to Detailed.
And you can see the target by searching its name under the detailed output log while you build it.
It will prevent the Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.dll being generated in the output folder.
Update 1
Actually, you may do some extra operation which causes the target ResolveLockFileCopyLocalProjectDeps not to be triggered. Due to the lack of your detailed project structure and CSPROJ file, I did not notice that.
For your situation, the target ResolvePackageDependenciesForBuild works well.
So in your side, you should use this:
<Target Name="FilterCopyLocalItems" AfterTargets="ResolvePackageDependenciesForBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Remove="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(Filename)' == 'Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions'" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Besides, when you execute the target, please do not add <ExcludeAssets>Runtime</ExcludeAssets> under the PackageReference of your nuget package, its effect is actually the role of your target FilterCopyLocalItems. At runtime, remove the related package.dll in the output folder. See this document.
So you should delete it to avoid reuse.

Antlr not working with VS2017

I am trying to set up a simple project with Antlr in .net core 1.0 project using VS2017.
Following https://github.com/sharwell/antlr4cs, added .g4 file to the project. The project file looks like this,
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.0</TargetFramework> </PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<None Remove="Calculator.g4" /> </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Antlr4" Version="4.5.4-beta001" /> </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<AdditionalFiles Include="Calculator.g4" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
But the document says,
Locate an existing XML element according to the MSBuild Property
column in the table above, or add one if it does not already exist.
For example, to generate both the parse tree listener and visitor
interfaces and base classes for your parser, update the project item
to resemble the following.
<Antlr4 Include="CustomLanguage.g4">
<Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
<CustomToolNamespace>MyProject.Folder</CustomToolNamespace>
<Listener>True</Listener> <Visitor>True</Visitor> </Antlr4>
There is no any Antlr4 tag in this proj file. Is Antlr not supported in VS2017?
is tehre a good example I can follow to use ANtlr with .net core?

This is simply all I need in my .NET Standard 1.3 class library project to hold the grammar file.
<ItemGroup>
<Antlr4 Include="Something.g4">
<Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
<Listener>False</Listener>
<Visitor>False</Visitor>
</Antlr4>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Antlr4" Version="4.6.1-beta001" />
</ItemGroup>
Note that you might use a newer Antlr4 package version as 4.6.1 was the only version available when this answer was created.

I was just looking for the same thing, for .NET Core 2.0.
The current ANTLR4 package version is 4.6.5 Beta 1. In this version the C# generator was ported to C# so the dependency to Java was removed. This is still experimental and has to be enabled manually with :
<Antlr4UseCSharpGenerator>True</Antlr4UseCSharpGenerator>
Files aren't generated when a .g4 file is modified. They will be generated when dotnet build is called.
File globbing works as expected BUT changing settings like <Visitor>false</Visitor> requires a call dotnet clean before dotnet build.
The default Antlr task options can be found in the source :
<Antlr4>
<Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
<CustomToolNamespace Condition="'$(Antlr4IsSdkProject)' != 'True'">$(RootNamespace)</CustomToolNamespace>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Never</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<Encoding>UTF-8</Encoding>
<TargetLanguage>CSharp</TargetLanguage>
<Listener>true</Listener>
<Visitor>true</Visitor>
<Abstract>false</Abstract>
<ForceAtn>false</ForceAtn>
</Antlr4>
Globbing works, so if I want to build all g4 files and disable visitors, all I have to write is :
<ItemGroup>
<Antlr4 Include="**/*.g4" >
<Visitor>false</Visitor>
</Antlr4>
</ItemGroup>
My entire csproj file looks like this :
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
<Antlr4UseCSharpGenerator>True</Antlr4UseCSharpGenerator>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Antlr4">
<Version>4.6.5-beta001</Version>
</PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Antlr4 Include="**/*.g4" >
<Visitor>false</Visitor>
</Antlr4>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>