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C# - Unable to change ApplicationVersion from MSBuild script

I'm a newbie trying to modify on publish the ApplicationVersion value by AssemblyVersion one on a MS Office AddIn.
Here is my csproj :
<Target Name="SetAssemblyVersionToPublish" AfterTargets="AfterCompile">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="AssemblyVersion" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<PropertyGroup>
<In>#(AssemblyVersion)</In>
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
<Out>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</Out>
<ApplicationVersion>$(Out.Remove(0, 28))</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="app Version : $(ApplicationVersion)" Importance="High" />
When I publish the app from Visual Studio 2015, logs show the good version :
app Version : 4.4.9.0
But in fact it is the ApplicationVersion defined in VS that is used :
<ApplicationVersion>1.0.0.0</ApplicationVersion>
I already tried :
reset all VS settings
disable any vs third party extensions
use safemode
if I publish a WPF app, it works well
Any one would know why I get this change ?
Update
After some test, I found that MSBUILD use a different target file for VSTO : MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\OfficeTools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.targets.
It seems to use PublishVersion which is a copy of ApplicationVersion. I don't know why but if I set ApplicationVersion in my target, it does not update the PublishVersion... If I set the publishVersion, I get the good version in my bin folder, but publishing failed (don't copy to publish folder because it still want to get the folder with 1_0_0_0 in bin).
It may be a problem with a bad step which launch my target, but I don't figure when it must be done.
Any help ?
UPDATE 2
It seems to be a bug with VS2015 publishing tool. If I try with msbuild.exe command line, it works well:
On VS I get an error asking for the below folder :
Whereas with the following msbuild command, it works :
MSBuild xxx\ExcelAddIn1\ExcelAddIn1\ExcelAddIn1.csproj /t:clean;publish
Anyone know what can be done as a workaround ?

First of all, I have a question, when I use your code in a winform project and execute publish, I got an error like:
After I test, I found that
ApplicationVersion which you got is illegal three digits instead of four digits, so there is a problem with your method of obtaining AssemblyVersion.
In general, the publish version is under Project Properties(right-click on your project)-->Publish
You can note that it is four digits.
Which proves that you have miss a node on Pattern property.
Suggestion
You should use
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
The whole code are:
<Target Name="AfterCompile">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="AssemblyVersion" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<PropertyGroup>
<In>#(AssemblyVersion)</In>
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
<Out>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</Out>
<ApplicationVersion>$(Out.Remove(0, 28))</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="app Version : $(ApplicationVersion)" Importance="High" />
</Target>
It will reads the AssemblyVersion from the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
In my side, it is
Actually, your method already works and it overwrite the publish version for the app.
I think you have read the first part of the build output log like this:
It is only the default system initial value at the beginning of the build, and it is just displayed there. And then through your custom msbuild script actually has overwritten its value.
Before executing publish, you should delete the publish folder, bin and obj folder, then execute the publish, you can enter the folder to check:
Update 1
I think your csproj file has imported some targets or props file which has other targets overwrite the AfterCompile target. So your method failed.
That is, your method may be overwritten elsewhere.
So I think you should not use AfterCompile as the target name and should name it as another to distinguish between them.
Use this:
<Target Name="SetAssemblyVersionToPublish" AfterTargets="AfterCompile">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="AssemblyVersion" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<PropertyGroup>
<In>#(AssemblyVersion)</In>
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
<Out>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</Out>
<ApplicationVersion>$(Out.Remove(0, 28))</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="app Version : $(ApplicationVersion)" Importance="High" />
</Target>
Or, You can add a file called Directory.Build.targets file on your project folder
and then add my code on it:
<Project>
<Target Name="SetAssemblyVersionToPublish" AfterTargets="AfterCompile">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="AssemblyVersion" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<PropertyGroup>
<In>#(AssemblyVersion)</In>
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
<Out>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</Out>
<ApplicationVersion>$(Out.Remove(0, 28))</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="app Version : $(ApplicationVersion)" Importance="High" />
</Target>
</Project>
Then, delete bin, obj, publish folder and then republish again to check it.
If the issue still persists, you should try the following suggestions to troubleshoot the issue:
1) Try to reset vs settings by Tools-->Import and Export settings-->Reset all vs settings
2) disable any vs third party extensions under Tools-->Extensions and Updates -->Installed, after that, close VS ,restart your project.
3) you could try devenv /safemode on the Developer Command Prompt for VS2015 to start a pure, initial vs to test your solution.
===============================================
Update 2
The MS Office Excel AddIn project is quite different from the traditional projects. And it is impossible by using this way.
As a workaround, I think you should use msbuild script to publish the project.
1) create a file called PublishExcel.proj
2) add these content on that file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="SetAssemblyVersionToPublish">
<!--you must specify the full path of the AssemblyInfo.cs from your project -->
<ReadLinesFromFile File="C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects\ExcelAddIn1\ExcelAddIn1\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="AssemblyVersion" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<PropertyGroup>
<In>#(AssemblyVersion)</In>
<Pattern>\[assembly: AssemblyVersion\(.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)</Pattern>
<Out>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(In), $(Pattern)))</Out>
<ApplicationVersion>$(Out.Remove(0, 28))</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="app Version : $(ApplicationVersion)" Importance="High" />
<MSBuild Projects="C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects\ExcelAddIn1\ExcelAddIn1\ExcelAddIn1.csproj" Properties="ApplicationVersion=$(ApplicationVersion)" Targets="Publish">
</MSBuild>
</Target>
</Project>
3) then open Developer Command prompt for VS2015 and then type:
msbuild xxx\xxx\PublishExcel.proj -t:SetAssemblyVersionToPublish
And the publish folder will be under the bin\Debug or Release\app.publish folder.
This function will work for MS Office Excel AddIn project.

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>

Customizations on MSBuild (like version) for a C# solution

I'm thinking that the final result is going to be "it can't be that easily done", but just seems like it should be. I have a personal project I am working on. I'd hate to have to manually (or even in script) change versions, company, copyright, and all that on ALL the assembly.cs files and would like all that to be either in a script or in a file I can change (so the script stays the same mostly) when I want to update the version. But it seems like MSBuild is mostly a "build as is specified in Visual Studio". I'd just hate to have all that history of these files where I change just the version and possibly even make a mistake as this project will continue to get bigger and bigger. I'd like to just be able to add a new project to Visual studio and have whatever command line in my powershell script just say "compile this, but give it this company name and this file version instead of whatever is listed in the code file".
Google has NOT proven fruitful in this. I've even found it difficult to build my files to a specific folder. I've had to so far make sure all my projects are 2 folders deep and was able to say to build them at ....\, but I would like to be able to change that randomly if I like and have them built elsewhere if I so desire.
Is MSBuild perhaps not the way to go? Is there someway else to build visual studio that would be better from command line? Eventually I also want to auto build the install with wix and be able to match its version with the binary versions.
thank you

Since csproj is xml, you can use XmlUpdate "helpers" to modify the values inside the csproj file before you do your build.
For other files, you can use some other Tasks to do the job.
Here is one helpful target:
http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org/ and/or https://github.com/loresoft/msbuildtasks has the ( FileUpdate (and SvnVersion task if that is your Source-Control) ) tasks.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild_VersionTagIt_Target">
<ItemGroup>
<AssemblyInfoFiles Include="$(ProjectDir)\**\*AssemblyInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
<!--
<SvnVersion LocalPath="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)" ToolPath="$(SVNToolPath)">
<Output TaskParameter="Revision" PropertyName="MyRevision" />
</SvnVersion>
-->
<PropertyGroup>
<MyRevision>9999</MyRevision>
</PropertyGroup>
<FileUpdate Files="#(AssemblyInfoFiles)"
Regex="AssemblyFileVersion\("(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)"
ReplacementText="AssemblyFileVersion("$1.$2.$3.$(MyRevision)" />
</Target>
Below is an example of manipulating the csproj(xml).
How to add a linked file to a csproj file with MSBuild. (3.5 Framework)
But basically, when you build, you can put all the repetative stuff in a msbuild definition file (usually with the extension .proj or .msbuild)...and call msbuild.exe MyFile.proj.
Inside the .proj file, you will reference your .sln file.
For example:
$(WorkingCheckout) would be a variable (not defined here)...that has the directory where you got a copy of hte code from your source-control.
<Target Name="BuildIt" >
<MSBuild Projects="$(WorkingCheckout)\MySolution.sln" Targets="Build" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="TargetOutputsItemName"></Output>
</MSBuild>
<Message Text="BuildItUp completed" />
</Target>
So below is the more complete example.
You would save this as "MyBuild.proj" and then call
"msbuild.exe" "MyBuild.proj".
Start .proj code. (Note, I did not import the libraries for the FileUpdate Task)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="AllTargetsWrapped">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- Always declare some kind of "base directory" and then work off of that in the majority of cases -->
<WorkingCheckout>.</WorkingCheckout>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AllTargetsWrapped">
<CallTarget Targets="BeforeBuild_VersionTagIt_Target" />
<CallTarget Targets="BuildItUp" />
</Target>
<Target Name="BuildItUp" >
<MSBuild Projects="$(WorkingCheckout)\MySolution.sln" Targets="Build" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="TargetOutputsItemName"></Output>
</MSBuild>
<Message Text="BuildItUp completed" />
</Target>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild_VersionTagIt_Target">
<ItemGroup>
<AssemblyInfoFiles Include="$(ProjectDir)\**\*AssemblyInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
<!--
<SvnVersion LocalPath="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)" ToolPath="$(SVNToolPath)">
<Output TaskParameter="Revision" PropertyName="MyRevision" />
</SvnVersion>
-->
<PropertyGroup>
<MyRevision>9999</MyRevision>
</PropertyGroup>
<FileUpdate Files="#(AssemblyInfoFiles)"
Regex="AssemblyFileVersion\("(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)"
ReplacementText="AssemblyFileVersion("$1.$2.$3.$(MyRevision)" />
</Target>
</Project>
To enhance the above, you would create a new target that would run before "BeforeBuild_VersionTagIt_Target", that would pull your code from source-control and put it in the $(WorkingCheckout) folder.
The basic steps would then be: 1. Checkout code from Source-Control. 2. Run the targets that alter the AssemblyVersion (and whatever else you want to manipulate) and 3. Build the .sln file.
That's the basics of a .proj file. You can do much more. Usually by using helper libraries that already exists.

Why does my MSBuild Exec Command Fail?

I have a pretty simple setup for this application I'm using to test something:
-Solution in VS
-Project for cs code (named Client)
-Project for Thrift files( named Thrift)
-Folder for Erlang Code(Doesn't show up in VS)
The idea is I'll build the Thrift project, have it generate the code for both languages, copy the generated erlang code to the correct directory (with MSBuild, but first things first), and include the generated csharp code in the Thrift project. To do this I have the following "BeforeBuild" target:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="cmd /c "C:\Windows\System32\thrift.exe" -gen erl -gen csharp *.thrift" />
<ItemGroup>
<CSFile Include="$(SolutionDir)gen-csharp\*" />
</ItemGroup>
I get the error "'C:\Windows\System32\thrift.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file".
I tried Command="thrift ..." since thrift is in my PATH, but found out that MSBuild doesn't find programs from the PATH variable.
Note: Using the command without "cmd /c" results in the same error message, but with a different error code (9001, because MSBuild is unable to find the file, instead of "cmd /c" failing to find the file).
Edit: For posterity, the working result is:
<Project>
...
(Auto generated data)
...
<PropertyGroup>
<CleanDependsOn>
$(CleanDependsOn);
CleanThriftGen;
</CleanDependsOn>
<ErlangProjectSrcDir>$(SolutionDir)Server\src\gen\</ErlangProjectSrcDir>
<GenCSharpDir>gen-csharp\</GenCSharpDir>
<GenErlDir>gen-erl\</GenErlDir>
<ThriftDir>C:\thrift\</ThriftDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="$(ThriftDir)thrift.exe -gen erl -gen csharp *.thrift" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<ErlangSrcGroup Include="$(GenErlDir)**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ErlangSrcGroup)" DestinationFiles="$(ErlangProjectSrcDir)%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)" ContinueOnError="false" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CleanThriftGen">
<RemoveDir Directories="$(ErlangProjectSrcDir)" />
<RemoveDir Directories="$(GenCSharpDir)" />
<RemoveDir Directories="$(GenErlDir)" />
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<CSharpGenGroup Include="$(GenCSharpDir)**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>

Found the majority of my answer, in my haste I had stuck the executable in the first directory I knew would already be in my path, System32. Moving it to another folder fixes the error when running the tool directly from VS (vs cmd /c).
But I'm still not clear on what caused this. I don't know why cmd /c would be unable to find it when a command prompt with normal privileges could, and I don't know why VS couldn't find it.
As a test I gave the new folder I placed it in permissions to require administrative privileges to write to, same as System32, but VS is still able to run it from there.

error MSB4006: There is a circular dependency in the target dependency graph involving target

I have following target on csproj file using VS2012, i want to run "Publish" on the project once the build has finished.
This gives me following error "error MSB4006: There is a circular dependency in the target dependency graph involving target "AfterBuild""
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Message Text="Running Publish..." Importance="high"/>
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectPath)" Properties="DeployOnBuild=true;PublishProfile=WebDeploy;CreatePackageOnPublish=True;VisualStudioVersion=11.0"/>
</Target>
i have tried replacing the MSBuild step with
<Exec Command="$(MSBuildBinPath)\MSBuild C:\MyProj.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=WebDeploy /p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0" ContinueOnError="false" />
Doing above results in build/publish being run over and over.
i have tried naming target different, calling it via another target to no avail.
How can i run "Publish" on the project without getting into repeated cycles? can this be done in another way?

If you only build in Visual Studio, then putting something like this into your csproj file (at the end) will work:
<Target Name="Deploy" AfterTargets="Build">
<MSBuild
Projects="$(ProjectPath)"
Targets="WebPublish"
Properties="PublishProfile=LocalDeploy"
/>
</Target>
However, if you build with with MSBuild this will result in a circular dependency. I have not yet figured out a solution that will allow you to publish on build that works in both Visual Studio and MSBuild.

Previously I was building with Visual Studio and TFS Server, which worked fine, but when i moved to GO-CD the following code caused a circular dependency creating packages.
<Target Name="CopyLinkedContentFiles" AfterTargets="Build" DependsOnTargets="PipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder">
<Copy SourceFiles="%(Content.Identity)"
DestinationFiles="%(Content.Link)"
SkipUnchangedFiles='true'
OverwriteReadOnlyFiles='true'
Condition="'%(Content.Link)' != ''" />