MSBuild ReadLinesFromFile all text on one line - deployment

Question

When I do a ReadLinesFromFile on a file in MSBUILD and go to output that file again, I get all the text on one line. All the Carriage returns and LineFeeds are stripped out.
<Project DefaultTargets = "Deploy"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" >
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
<ItemGroup>
<MyTextFile Include="$(ReleaseNotesDir)$(NewBuildNumber).txt"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="ReadReleaseNotes">
<ReadLinesFromFile
File="#(MyTextFile)" >
<Output
TaskParameter="Lines"
ItemName="ReleaseNoteItems"/>
</ReadLinesFromFile>
</Target>
<Target Name="MailUsers" DependsOnTargets="ReadReleaseNotes" >
<Mail SmtpServer="$(MailServer)"
To="$(MyEMail)"
From="$(MyEMail)"
Subject="Test Mail Task"
Body="#(ReleaseNoteItems)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Deploy">
<CallTarget Targets="MailUsers" />
</Target>
</Project>
I get the text from the file which normally looks like this
- New Deployment Tool for BLAH
- Random other stuff()""
Coming out like this
- New Deployment Tool for BLAH;- Random other stuff()""
I know that the code for ReadLinesFromFile will pull the data in one line at a time and strip out the carriage returns.
Is there a way to put them back in?
So my e-mail looks all nicely formatted?
Thanks

Answer 1

The problem here is you are using the ReadLinesFromFile task in a manner it wasn't intended.
ReadLinesFromFile Task
Reads a list of items from a text file.
So it's not just reading all the text from a file, it's reading individual items from a file and returning an item group of ITaskItems. Whenever you output a list of items using the #() syntax you will get a separated list, the default of which is a semicolon. This example illustrates this behavior:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
<ItemGroup>
<Color Include="Red" />
<Color Include="Blue" />
<Color Include="Green" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="ItemGroup Color: #(Color)" />
</Target>
</Project>
And the output looks like this:
ItemGroup Color: Red;Blue;Green
So while the best solution to your problem is to write an MSBuild task that reads a file into a property as a string an not a list of items, that's really not what you asked for. You asked if there was a way to put them back, and there is using MSBuild Transforms.
Transforms are used to create one list from another and also have the ability to transform using a custom separator. So the answer is to transform your list read in using ReadItemsFromFile into another list with newlines. Here is an example that does just that:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
<ItemGroup>
<File Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Test.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<ReadLinesFromFile File="#(File)">
<Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="FileContents" />
</ReadLinesFromFile>
<Message Text="FileContents: #(FileContents)" />
<Message Text="FileContents Transformed: #(FileContents->'%(Identity)', '%0a%0d')" />
</Target>
</Project>
Test.text looks like:
Red
Green
Blue
And the output looks like this:
[C:\temp]:: msbuild test.proj
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 3.5.21022.8
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.1433]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Build started 11/8/2008 8:16:59 AM.
Project "C:\temp\test.proj" on node 0 (default targets).
FileContents: Red;Green;Blue
FileContents Transformed: Red
Green
Blue
Done Building Project "C:\temp\test.proj" (default targets).
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.03
What's going on here is two things.
#(FileContents->'%(Identity)', '%0a%0d')
We are transforming the list from one type to another using the same values (Identity) but a custom separator '%0a%0d'
We are using MSBuild Escaping to escape the line feed (%0a) and carriage return (%0d)

Answer 2

If you are using MSBuild 4.0, you can do the following instead, to get the contents of a file:
$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($FilePath))

Answer 3

Instead of #(FileContents->'%(Identity)', '%0a%0d') I believe you can do #(FileContents, '%0a%0d')

Answer 4

You can use WriteLinesToFile combined with
$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($(SourceFilePath))):
< WriteLinesToFile File="$(DestinationFilePath)" Lines="$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($(SourceFilePath)))"
Overwrite="true"
/>
This will copy your file exactly at it is.