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Nuget package.targets not able to find files in copy task

Background: I have a library that's meant to be used with a C# game engine. That game engine has an editor that picks up plugins via a Plugins/ directory of the project (is not included in the build output). In order to make life easy for users I want to package my library and the associated editor plugins packaged and deployed together in a single nuget file. This way users don't have to manually manage the versions of two different sets of files.
Problem:
Nuget no longer has the ability to copy content files over by default. Based on searching the only way to accomplish this is with tasks set up in an msbuild package.targets file. So I have the following in my csproj
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="../Parme.Frb.Example/Plugins/**/*">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>content\Plugins</PackagePath>
</Content>
<Content Include="Parme.Frb.targets">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>build</PackagePath>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
The Parme.Frb.Example/Plugins folder contains the plugin files I want to include in the nuget file. My Parme.Frb.targets msbuild file contains:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<GluePluginFiles>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\content\Plugins\**\*</GluePluginFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CopyGluePlugin" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent">
<Copy SourceFiles="$(GluePluginFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)Plugins\%(GluePluginFiles.RecursiveDir)"
SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
</Project>
The intention is that it will copy all files from the <nuget-cache>/<package>/content/Plugins directory and recursively copy it tho the project's Plugins/ directory.
When I look at the built nuget file I see all the included content files
So I load this nuget file into a blank project and run a build, which produces the following errors:
Build started 4/12/2021 4:56:42 PM.
Logging verbosity is set to: Normal. 1>Project "C:\Users\me\RiderProjects\NugetTest\NugetTest\NugetTest.csproj" on node 1 (build target(s)).
1>C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\build\Parme.Frb.targets(7,9): error MSB3030: Could not copy the file "C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\build\..\content\Plugins\**\*" because it was not found.
1>Done Building Project "C:\Users\me\RiderProjects\NugetTest\NugetTest\NugetTest.csproj" (build target(s)) -- FAILED.
Build FAILED.
"C:\Users\me\RiderProjects\NugetTest\NugetTest\NugetTest.csproj" (build target) (1) ->
(CopyGluePlugin target) ->
C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\build\Parme.Frb.targets(7,9): error MSB3030: Could not copy the file "C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\build\..\content\Plugins\**\*" because it was not found.
0 Warning(s)
1 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.33
However, files most definitely do exist in this directory:
PS C:\Users\me> ls C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\build\..\content\Plugins
Directory: C:\Users\me\.nuget\packages\parme.frb\0.8.3-test10\content\Plugins
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 4/12/2021 4:56 PM Parme.Frb.GluePlugin
I've tried reorganizing the nuget package to remove the .., I've tried removing the GluePlugins. part of the RecursiveDir (which most tasks don't seem to have but that causes a different error`, etc.. I've tried a ton of stuff and can't get this to work.
Does anyone have any idea on how I can get this copying, without manually specifying each file?

I don't know specifically why this works, but after a lot of trial and error I got it working via:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<GluePluginFile Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\content\Plugins\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyGluePlugin" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent">
<Message Importance="normal" Text="Copying Glue plugin files" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(GluePluginFile)"
DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)\Plugins\%(RecursiveDir)"
SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
</Project>

Create folder while publishing with MSBuild

I am Trying to create a Temp folder while doing the publish of my Web Application Project with file system location in Visual Studio 2015.I have tried adding the code below in .csfile but its not Creating folder in the target location of the Publish Directory.If given Static location to create folder its working fine.How can get Publish Directory dynamically?
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles" AfterTargets="Build">
<MakeDir Directories="$(PublishDirectory)$(OutputDirectoryTemp)" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputDirectoryTemp>\Temp\</OutputDirectoryTemp>
</PropertyGroup>

Create folder while publishing with MSBuild
You need to declare attributes PublishDirectory by creating an element with the attribute name as a child of the PropertyGroup element, because there is no such MSBuild Macros for this, you can check the Common Macros for Build Commands and Properties.
As test, I set PublishDirectory to the path D:\Publish:
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishDirectory>D:\Publish</PublishDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
Then I add a output command line <Message Test="xxx" /> in the target to output the content of $(PublishDirectory)$(OutputDirectoryTemp):
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles" AfterTargets="Build">
<MakeDir Directories="$(PublishDirectory)$(OutputDirectoryTemp)" />
<Message Text="$(PublishDirectory)$(OutputDirectoryTemp)">
</Message>
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputDirectoryTemp>\Temp\</OutputDirectoryTemp>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishDirectory>D:\Publish</PublishDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
In the output window, you will see following log:
And the folder Temp would be created:
If you have already defined the variable of PublishDirectory, you can try to use the output command line <Message Test="xxx" /> check if the path is correct.
Update:
I will like to get the target location of the Publish Directory dynamically not static or hard coded
Since you want to get the target location of the Publish Directory dynamically, as we know, the location of the Publish Directory was stored in the .pubxml file, in the node <publishUrl>D:\Publish\Test</publishUrl>, to get this value dynamically, we could use $(publishUrl) to get this value in the target, However, the publishing process is after the build, we could not get this value in the build process, so we need to change the order of this target from AfterTargets="Build" to AfterTargets="PipelineTransformPhase". The target should be:
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles" AfterTargets="PipelineTransformPhase">
<MakeDir Directories="$(publishUrl)$(OutputDirectoryTemp)" />
<Message Text="$(publishUrl)$(OutputDirectoryTemp)" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputDirectoryTemp>\Temp\</OutputDirectoryTemp>
</PropertyGroup>
In this case, when you publish your project to the system location, the publish directory will be stored in the publishUrl, we could get it in that target.
Hope this helps.

A little irrelevant at this point in time, but I think it may help someone like me. Whenever I searched how to dynamically add the folders and files within the same project in my publish profile in Azure DevOps, I landed on this question. So, I decided to put my answer here if it can help someone.
MSBuild expects you to make sure that you include certain files into the project file if you want Azure to deploy them during a git deployment. It is very frustrating, especially when you're using an external tool to copy files into a certain folder.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Visual Studio and (therefore) MSBuild just recursively included and deployed a folder of files within the same project without you having to define it in the publish profile?
You have to hand-edit the .csproj/.vbproj file (using Notepad++), but all you need to do is use a wildcard in the Include statement:
MyProject.Web.vbproj
<!-- double wildcards include all files and folders -->
<Content Include="folder\**" />
<!-- You can also filter certain type of files (e.g. .js files) -->
<Content Include="folder\*.min.js" />
It helped me tremendously.

Try specifying your PropertyGroup before your target, to ensure it has been created.
Also check the value of PublishDirectory to make sure it is a valid path - I suspect it may come with a "\" on the end of it, so you're ending up with two slashes

Why doesn't Exec Command work in a .csproj for netstandard2.0?

I'm busy moving my code from .Net Framework libraries to .netstandard2.0 libraries. So far it's going pretty well, but now i'm stuck with the in the .csproj file.
The existing project file has this defined
<Target Name="Rebuild">
<Exec Command="echo Now Rebuilding the package" />
</Target>
the actual command executes an exe that generates a bunch of xml classes based on an xsd.
I cannot get this to work in a .netstandard2.0 project?
I've searched everywhere but i cannot find a reason for this not working...

I suspect that in your specific instance, the Rebuild target will be overwritten by the sdk targets that are implicitly imported after your code. If you want to overwrite SDK-provided tasks, you need to change to explicit SDK imports (instead of <Project Sdk="...">):
<Project>
<Import Project="Sdk.props" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
<!-- other project content -->
<Import Project="Sdk.targets" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
<Target Name="Build">
<!-- overwrite Build target here -->
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild">
<!-- overwrite Rebuild target here -->
</Target>
</Project>
The Exec target is supported though the echo command may or may not work depending on the platform you are running it on (since echo may be just a built-in command of the shell but no executable that can be run).
Make sure that:
The command starts with the path to an executable that is found on the PATH or is specified absolute or relative to the csproj file being built.
The target is actually executed. E.g. some programs could use /t:Clean;Build instead of /t:Rebuild.

How to make Web.Config Transform files work during both build & publish? [duplicate]

How can I merge and make use of Web.debug.config in visual studio 2010 built-in debugger?

This is a known bug. That feature can be used right now only as part of the deploy process.
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/523221/have-web-debug-config-apply-during-development
Please upvote it, if you encounter this too, so this will be fixed ASAP.

This is actually quite simple to do and, believe it or not, it seems this is the way VS is designed to work.
Add the following lines verbatim right before the closing "Project" tag of the .csproj file of the project that contains web.config.
<UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll" />
<Target Name="Transform">
<MakeDir Directories="obj\$(Configuration)" Condition="!Exists('obj\$(Configuration)')" />
<TransformXml Source="Web.Config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="obj\$(Configuration)\Web.config" StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
Put the following lines verbatim to the post-build event in the project properties of the project that contains the web.config file. Do this for each build configuration you want the transformations to run for.
"$(MSBUILDBINPATH)\msbuild" "$(ProjectPath)" /t:Transform /p:Configuration=$(ConfigurationName);Platform=AnyCPU
xcopy "$(ProjectDir)obj\$(ConfigurationName)\Web.Config" "$(ProjectDir)". /F /R /Y

I had solved this in a simpler way, by adding this at the end of the .csproj file, right before the tag. This is similar to keitn's answer, with the difference that it doesn't use a post build event.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<TransformXml Source="Web.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>

I didn't want to update the web.config in my project just the one that ends up in the bin folder so here is how I did it.
Add the following to the end of .csproj (just before the final closing project tag)
<Target Name="Transform">
<MakeDir Directories="bin" Condition="!Exists('bin')" />
<TransformXml Source="Web.Config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="bin\$(TargetFileName).config" StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
Then add the following post build step
"$(MSBUILDBINPATH)\msbuild" "$(ProjectPath)" /t:Transform /p:Configuration=$(ConfigurationName);Platform=AnyCPU
This means that when you build a transform takes place from the debug/release config to WebsiteName.Config file in the output bin directory thus not interfering with the main web.config in the project.

After reading many similar posts and having problems with files not being able to be overwritten or web.config not being accessible because it is read only this is what I got working for me:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild" Condition="$(Configuration) == 'MyAltDebugConfiguration'">
<ItemGroup>
<OriginalWebConfig Include="$(ProjectDir)Web.config"/>
<TempWebConfig Include="$(ProjectDir)TempWeb.config"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Exec Command=""$(DevEnvDir)tf.exe" checkout "$(ProjectDir)Web.config"" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(OriginalWebConfig)" DestinationFiles="#(TempWebConfig)" />
<TransformXml Source="$(ProjectDir)TempWeb.config"
Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config"
Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>
Notes:
This runs as the BeforeBuild target.
I only want it to run under a certain configuration (an alternative debug environment) and so that is why I have the Condition. When deploying via web deploy the publishing target kicks in and I don't need this target to run.
I don't want to have to remember to check out web.config (only to undo it when I am done) so I check web.config out before beginning the transform. If you aren't using TFS you can remove this line.
Because VS (2010) \ msbuild doesn't want to let go of the Source web.config I use a temp file (thanks to this article for the info: http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2011/09/14/using-custom-webconfig-transformations-in-msbuild)
I tried adding a command to delete the TempWeb.config but VS \ msbuild doesn't want to let go of it. I can live with it as it doesn't get added to TFS.

I know this is old, but I'm facing the same problem. We have Test, Staging, Live configs that replace endpoints, connection strings etc. from the default Web.config
However I would do the following:
Right click on the desired transform config (e.g. Web.Live.config)
Click on "Preview Transform"
Copy everything from right (it's how the Web.config looks with the transformation)
CTRL+A + CTRL+C
Open Web.config file (default one)
Select everything (CTRL+A) and paste it in (CTRL+V)
Run
It's not that many steps and is done pretty quickly when you get a hang of it. Hope this helps. :)

#ologesa:
Your solution needs write access to the original Web.config (you must check-out in TFS).
The better solution is to directly generate the Web.config in the bin folder like keitn does this. When we combine keitn's and your solution we get this one:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Message Text="Transforming Web.config from Web.$(Configuration).config" Importance="high" />
<MakeDir Directories="bin" Condition="!Exists('bin')" />
<TransformXml Source="Web.Config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="bin\$(TargetFileName).config" StackTrace="true" />
</Target>

web.config transform from web.template.xml not working

I'm trying to get web.config transformations working as described here. We've used this method on other projects and it works without issue, but not on this new project.
Here's what I've tried testing without success
Changing name of wpp.targets file in case I got the project name wrong. I know the current one I'm using works since it's the only one that causes web.config to be rebuilt from web.template.xml this transform works. Only the sub templates don't work.
Tried with xdt:Locator="Match(name)"
Tried .config extension vs .xml, our other projects where this works use .xml
Configuration manager is set to use the "Test" configuration for the project I'm working on.
web.template.Test.xml has xdt:Transform="Replace" for the section I want to replace
web.template.xml has the placeholder
Tried removing the "CopyWebTemplateConfig" section from wpp.targets as suggested on the stack question linked below. Our other projects have this and the "PropertyGroup" section commented out and I've tried both combinations.
I've read through the above link multiple times and this related stack question, but can't see what the problem is.
Note The publish transform does work in a way. It creates a web.template.xml file that contains the values from web.template.Test.xml, but does not create a web.config.xml as the wpp.targets instructs. So this is more of an issue with getting the build transform working it seems.
Anyone have an idea of what's missing?
wpp.targets
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<!-- Make sure web.config will be there even for package/publish -->
<Target Name="CopyWebTemplateConfig" BeforeTargets="Build">
<Copy SourceFiles="web.template.xml"
DestinationFiles="web.config"/>
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<PrepareForRunDependsOn>
$(PrepareForRunDependsOn);
UpdateWebConfigBeforeRun;
</PrepareForRunDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- This target will run right before you run your app in Visual Studio -->
<Target Name="UpdateWebConfigBeforeRun">
<Message Text="Configuration: $(Configuration): Web.template.$(Configuration).xml"/>
<TransformXml Source="web.template.xml"
Transform="web.template.$(Configuration).xml"
Destination="web.config" />
</Target>
<!-- Exclude the config template files from the created package -->
<Target Name="ExcludeCustomConfigTransformFiles" BeforeTargets="ExcludeFilesFromPackage">
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="web.template.xml;web.template.*.xml"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="ExcludeFromPackageFiles: #(ExcludeFromPackageFiles)" Importance="high"/>
</Target>
</Project>
web.template.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=152368
-->
<configuration>
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="TestSettings"></sectionGroup>
....
</configSections>
....
<TestSettings>
</TestSettings>
....
</configuration>
web.template.Test.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- For more information on using transformations
see the web.config examples at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=214134. -->
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
<TestSettings xdt:Transform="Replace">
...
</TestSettings>
</configuration>
MSBuild output
Target "UpdateWebConfigBeforeRun: (TargetId:143)" in file "C:\...\Project.wpp.targets" from project "C:\...\Project.csproj" (target "PrepareForRun" depends on it):
Task "Message" (TaskId:93)
Configuration: Test: Web.template.Test.xml (TaskId:93)
Done executing task "Message". (TaskId:93)
Task "TransformXml" (TaskId:94)
Transforming Source File: Web.template.xml (TaskId:94)
Applying Transform File: Web.template.Test.xml (TaskId:94)
Executing Replace (transform line 5, 18) (TaskId:94)
on /configuration/TestSettings (TaskId:94)
Applying to 'TestSettings' element (source line 121, 4) (TaskId:94)
Replaced 'TestSettings' element (TaskId:94)
Done executing Replace (TaskId:94)
Output File: web.config (TaskId:94)
Transformation succeeded (TaskId:94)
Done executing task "TransformXml". (TaskId:94)
Done building target "UpdateWebConfigBeforeRun" in project "Project.csproj".: (TargetId:143)

I had installed StyleCop and that was doing the overwrite for me.
So I uninstalled it and the issue was resolved.
Funny is that I re-installed the StyleCop and the transform was still working!
Also at some points I noticed that I should remove the CopyWebTemplateConfig target section as well.

I've got a solution to my problem, but not sure what the cause is, so not sure if this will solve it in other cases.
I reviewed the output of the MSBuild diagnostic and noticed that towards the end there was another section that copied web.template to web.config. Note that this is after the UpdateWebConfigBeforeRun target already ran and made its updates from the sub template transform file to web.config. It looked like this last step was overriding the web.config with the transform I wanted.
I wasn't sure where this last set of copy instruction was coming from, so I did a search for all files on my PC looking for other wpp.target files. I found another one in Slow Cheetah's extensions folder and saw some section up top that was setting a property "transformOnBuild" to false.
Thinking there was a conflict with SlowCheetah, I uninstalled it and the transformations started working as expected. This was still a bit odd since the other solutions worked with SlowCheetah enabled. On a whim I re-installed SlowCheetah and the transformation continued to work as expected.
So my solution ended up being a re-installation of SlowCheetah. I'm still confused about what the cause of this issue was, so if anyone else posts an answer to this I'll give them the bounty.

I've had a similar issue last week.
Turns out that whenever you add a project to a solution in VS 2010 the right project configuration doesn't get applied all the time.
So you think you have a configuration active but another is actually active on that project, thus the transformation you expect doesn't get applied.
Check the steps in last comment of this issue: Custom solution configuration not showing up in Visual Studio 2010

"I know the current one I'm using works since it's the only one that causes web.config to be rebuilt from web.template.xml this transform works. Only the sub templates don't work."
Does this mean, transformation works but TestSettings section alone does not get transformed?
Can you share build output with msbuild with verbosity set to diagnostic / detailed?

I wrote a blog post about this subject. I use it everyday in our web application. I wrote the blog post because the feature in slowcheetah isn't ready yet.
http://www.locktar.nl/general/use-config-transforms-when-debugging-your-web-application/