Hello,
How canI create a private Target in msbuild. I mean I want a target which can be called from some other target but not from outside (not from command line). ?

Thanks a lot

You have to be very careful with using conditions on targets . I personally tend to avoid them.

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

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My Book: Inside the Microsoft Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build
My Blog: sedodream.com
Visual C# MVP

You can't. You could add a condition to the target though and set that condition to true before you call it from another target. Of course a command line call could also set the condition to true... Can you post more about your scenario if this a big issue for you. Thanks.. Mike

I got this sub target:

<Target Name="SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag">
<CreateProperty Value="true">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="PublishTargetInvoked"/>
</CreateProperty>
</Target>

Which suppose to be called from some other target and the SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag is not supposed to be called from command line. Any way?

how are you calling that target within your file?

<CallTarget Targets="SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag"></CallTarget>

from some other target. Any ideas?

right, well its not foolproof, but you could do something like this

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Default" DependsOnTargets="SetVariables;SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag"/>
<Target Name="SetVariables">
<PropertyGroup>
<InFile>true</InFile>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
<Target Name="SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag" Condition="$(InFile) == 'true'">
<Message Text="Hello from SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag"/>
</Target>
</Project>

if you run msbuild YOURFILE.proj /t:SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag from the command line, the target will not execute. But you can easily change that to msbuild YOURFILE.proj /t:SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag /p:InFile=true and it will run!

Note i used DependsOnTargets rather than CallTarget as there is a 'Feature' in CallTarget

But it seems problematic because you can call the SetVariables from the command line and then the SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag that i don't want to be called form command line and then you are not protected again. I mean you hide the SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag but if i will run SetVariables and then SetPublishTargetInvokedFlag - it will be exposed again. Any way to make it private ? Thanks a lot

Not that I know of.

You have to be very careful with using conditions on targets . I personally tend to avoid them.

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

---

My Book: Inside the Microsoft Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build
My Blog: sedodream.com
Visual C# MVP