How to write AssemblyVersion to file using MSBuild? - version-control

Question

FinalEdit: Despite relative directories not working in the first post, it worked if I simply removed the $(MsBuildThisFileDirectory) from the Exec line.
Edit2: I added the new targets to the DefaultTargets. Which now runs them by default. However, timing was now off with the postbuild command. I added <Exec Command="call $(MsBuildThisFileDirectory)documentation\tools\GenerateDocumentation.bat" IgnoreExitCode="false" /> to the target, but it gives an error that C:\Users\my is not a valid batch file because of the space which is actually C:\Users\my program\documentation\tools\GenerateDocumentation.bat. Putting quotes around the path gives me error MSB4025 that Name cannot begin with $.
Edit: I have tried stijn's code and it works when I explicitly run it from the command line using /t:RetrieveIdentities, but for some reason it doesn't seem to run otherwise.
I have been using Doxygen to generate documentation for my source code, however, I would like to be able to do it automatically. I wrote a simple .bat script to run Doxygen with my desired config file and compile the output into a .chm help file, but I have been unable to change the revision number automatically in Doxygen.
I was attempting to simply update the config file by adding a new line to the config file with the new revision number using MSBuild, but I have been unable to get anything to print or even create a new file when none is present.
The code I have so far I have gotten from other similar questions, but I cannot seem to get it to work.
<ItemGroup>
<MyTextFile Include="\documentation\DoxygenConfigFile.doxyconfig"/>
<MyItems Include="PROJECT_NUMBER = %(MyAssemblyIdentitiesAssemblyInfo.Version)"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="RetrieveIdentities">
<GetAssemblyIdentity AssemblyFiles="bin\foo.exe">
<Output TaskParameter="Assemblies" ItemName="MyAssemblyIdentities"/>
</GetAssemblyIdentity>
<WriteLinesToFile File="#(MyTextFile)" Lines="#(MyItems)" Overwrite="false" Encoding="UTF8" />
</Target>

Answer 1

Encoding is wrong, it should be UTF-8
When working with items/properties, the % and # and $ must come right before the (, no spacing in between: %(MyAssemblyIdentitiesAssemblyInfo.Version)
MyAssemblyIdentitiesAssemblyInfo does not exist, you probably meant MyAssemblyIdentities
Look up how msbuild evaluates properties and items. Basically what it will do in your script is evaluate MyItems, but at that time MyAssemblyIdentities does not yet exist so is empty, and only afterwards the GetAssemblyIdentity gets executed. Fix this by enforcing correct evaluation order: put your items inside the target and make it depend on another target that creates MyAssemblyIdentities before evaluating your items.
To summarize:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="GetAssemblyIdentities">
<GetAssemblyIdentity AssemblyFiles="bin\foo.exe">
<Output TaskParameter="Assemblies" ItemName="MyAssemblyIdentities"/>
</GetAssemblyIdentity>
</Target>
<Target Name="RetrieveIdentities" DependsOnTargets="GetAssemblyIdentities">
<ItemGroup>
<MyTextFile Include="\documentation\DoxygenConfigFile.doxyconfig"/>
<MyItems Include="PROJECT_NUMBER = %(MyAssemblyIdentities.Version)"/>
</ItemGroup>
<WriteLinesToFile File="#(MyTextFile)" Lines="#(MyItems)"
Overwrite="false" Encoding="UTF-8" />
</Target>
</Project>
Note this will only work if you invoke msbuild in the directory where the script is, else the paths (documentation/foo) will be wrong. That could be fixed by using eg $(MsBuildThisFileDirectory)\bin\foo.exe)