What is the source directory of the build? - azure-devops

Question

I have the following tasks:
steps:
- task: MSBuild#1
displayName: '$(ProjectName) .Net build | Build solution (No need to build test as well)'
inputs:
solution: '**/$(ProjectName)/*.csproj'
msbuildArchitecture: x64
configuration: Release
msbuildArguments: '/p:OutputPath=$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
clean: true
steps:
- task: CopyFiles#2
displayName: 'Copy Files to: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Release'
inputs:
SourceFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/$(ProjectName)'
Contents: |
bin/**
Bundles/**
Views/**
appsettings.json
appsettings.Development.json
*.txt
**/wwwroot/favicon-*.png
**/wwwroot/favicon-*.ico
TargetFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Release'
For some reason, the copy step fails with:
##[error]Error: Not found SourceFolder: D:\a\1\a\projectname
why is that?
My project output structure following a local VS build is something like this:
The pipeline .Net build step creates directories as follows:
Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\nl".
Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\cs".
Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\de".
...
2022-09-21T02:38:30.3292966Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\runtimes\win-arm\native".
2022-09-21T02:38:30.3293353Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\runtimes\win\lib\netcoreapp3.1".
2022-09-21T02:38:30.3293727Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\runtimes\win-arm64\native".
2022-09-21T02:38:31.1717424Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\refs".
2022-09-21T02:38:31.1717862Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\refs".
2022-09-21T02:38:31.1718174Z Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\refs".
so i assumed the source would be D:\a\1\a\projectname or SourceFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/$(ProjectName)' but thats not working it seems.
My reasoning for this is before the dev upgraded the project to .NET6, in the older asp.NET model, the output was one wwwroot directory and so it would translate in the build log to something like:
Creating directory "D:\a\1\a\_PublishedWebsites\projectname\Content\...
so my copy task source would be SourceFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/_PublishedWebsites/$(ProjectName)' and that normally worked.
but _PublishedWebsitesno longer appears to be part of .NET6 build output, so im not sure what the source would be now

Answer 1

To be sure about how the build is generating the directory structure, you can add the following task and check the output:
steps:
- task: MSBuild#1
displayName: '$(ProjectName) .Net build | Build solution (No need to build test as well)'
inputs:
solution: '**/$(ProjectName)/*.csproj'
msbuildArchitecture: x64
configuration: Release
msbuildArguments: '/p:OutputPath=$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
clean: true
- powershell: |
Get-ChildItem $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory) -Recurse
displayName: 'Check agent directories'