msbuild - Including content files in .csproj that are outside the project cone

Question

I have a C# project say MyProject.csproj located at "C:ProjectsMyProject". I also have files that I want copied into the output directory of this project. But, the files are at the location "C:MyContentFiles", i.e. they are NOT within the project cone. This directory has sub-directories as well. The contents of the directory is not managed. Hence I have to include all what is under it.

When I include them as 'Content' in the project, they are copied, but the directory structure is lost. I did something like this:-

<Content Include="....MyContentFiles**">
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>

How do I copy these files/directories recursively into the output directory of the project with the directory structure preserved?

Answer 1

I believe @Dmytrii gets it right on one hand - you want to use the "link" feature.

However, he's only partly correct when saying you can't link to a directory tree. While this is, indeed, true when trying to add the links using Visual Studio's GUI, MSBuild supports this.

If you want to preserve the directory structure, just add the %(RecursiveDir) tag to your <link> node:

<Content Include="....MyContentFiles***.*">
  <Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>

The page MSBuild Well-known Item Metadata goes into more detail on the metadata you can access.