.NET App.config. How to replace file attribute?

Question

Here is short summary of current situation: In my solution (console application) I use app.config file with entry like this:

< appSettings file="Additional.config"> On our production environment this file is provided by separate routine and we don't want to put it in projects file repository. Still we need a convenient way to run the solution in dev environment.

We've come with an idea to replace the file attribute using SlowCheetach. It works just fine with replacing key-value entries but we are unable to make it run correctly.

Is there a way to replace file property with SlowCheetach or any other lightweight tool? We really want to avoid using build scripts to modify app.config output.

Answer 1

Solution below is not working properly because id is not a valid schema element. Real solution at the bottom.

I've figured out a simple way to accomplish this. All that is needed to do is add another attribute to appSettings and set it as Match Selector so entry in app.config would look like:

 <appSettings file="Additional.config" id="appconfig">

and the one in App.Debug.config:

<appSettings id="appconfig" file="New/Path/To/Additional.config" xdt:Transform="Replace" xdt:Locator="Match(id)">

Real solution here:

It turns out that you can simply use transform in form:

   <appSettings xdt:Transform="RemoveAttributes(file)">

which will remove only attributes passed to RemoveAttributes and leave rest of the config intact.

More about possible transform attributes can be read here