I want to prepare a pre-compiled package of ASP.NET MVC 4 site.
I can precompile it using commandline as follows:
aspnet_compiler -nologo -v / -p "C:\WebSite1" -u "C:\TargetPath"
However it baffles me, why aspnet_compiler requires virtual path. What if I decide later on to deploy this package to an IIS server under different path? Could it cause some run-time problems?
By deployment I mean here simple xcopy deployment.
If you specifiy the physical path of the source with the -p switch, then the virtual path is required. I reluctantly submit this page http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/deployment/deploying-web-site-projects/precompiling-your-website-cs for some info on how the -v can play in with app relative references ie ~/path/file. What he says needs more qualification and does not appear to apply to apps under the default IIS site.
His explanation is that using -v /MySite will change references from ~/path/file to ~/MySite/path/file. However I have not experienced this behaviour. Atleast as far as compiling apps that are under the default IIS website (regardless of being on the root of the site or nested). If I compile with for instance /v kart, inline references and codebehind references to "~/path/file" arrive in the dll as "~/path/file", not "~/kart/path/file". I have had no runtime problems deploying my WebForm apps elsewhere where the app root is now at a different path.
If you are compiling apps that are under the default IIS website, it is redundant to use -p with the physical path to the source and -v with the virtual path. If you omit the -p switch it will compile the same as only using the -v. Being redundant with the -p and physical source path may be nice when reviewing a batch file to have the source location documented.