Msbuild copy to several locations based on list of destination parameter?

Question

I got a directory I want to copy to a number of locations.

Say I have

• home.aspx

I want to copy it to

• abc/home.aspx
• def/home.aspx
• ghi/home.aspx

so two questions for me:

• How do I define the list abc, def, ghi?
• How do I execute my Copy task with each element of this list?

Answer 1

Here is an actual example that I put together that shows what you were looking for:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Test" ToolsVersion="3.5">

  <!--Declare an ItemGroup that points to your file you want to copy.-->
  <ItemGroup>
    <ItemToCopy Include=".\Home.aspx" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <!--Declare an ItemGroup that points to your destination Locations-->
  <ItemGroup>
    <DestLocations Include=".\abc\home.aspx" />
    <DestLocations Include=".\def\home.aspx" />
    <DestLocations Include=".\ghi\home.aspx" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="CopyFiles">
    <!--Run the copy command to copy the item to your dest locations-->
    <!--This is where the magic happens.  The % sign before the DestLocations reference says to use
    Batching.  So Copy will be run for each unique FullPath MetaData in the DestLocations ItemGroup.-->
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(ItemToCopy)" DestinationFolder="%(DestLocations.FullPath)" />
  </Target>
</Project>