How to create copying items from property values?

Question

Let's say I have a list of sub paths such as

 <PropertyGroup>
   <subPaths>$(path1)\**\*; $(path2)\**\*; $(path3)\file3.txt; </subPaths>
</PropertyGroup>

I want to copy these files from folder A to folder B (surely we already have all the sub folders/files in A). What I try was:

<Target Name="Replace" DependsOnTargets="Replace_Init; Replace_Copy1Path">
</Target>

<Target Name="Replace_Init">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <subPaths>$(path1)\**\*; $(path2)\**\*; $(path3)\file3.txt; </subPaths>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <subPathItems Include="$(subPathFiles.Split(';'))" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

<Target Name="Replace_Copy1Path" Outputs="%(subPathItems.Identity)">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <src>$(folderA)\%(subPathItems.Identity)</src>
    <dest>$(folderB)\%(subPathItems.Identity)</dest>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Copy SourceFiles="$(src)" DestinationFiles="$(dest)" />
</Target>

But the Copy task didn't work. It doesn't translate the **\* to files. What did I do wrong? Please help!

Answer 1

I don't think you can do something like that.

$(subPathFiles.Split(';')) returns a property where value are separated by semicolon, so this call is useless.

If you want to keep this mechanism you should use the task StringToItemCol from MSBuild Extension Pack :

<Target Name="Replace_Init">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <subPaths>$(path1)\**\*; $(path2)\**\*; $(path3)\file3.txt; </subPaths>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <MsBuildHelper TaskAction="StringToItemCol" 
                 ItemString="$(subPaths)" Separator=";">
    <Output TaskParameter="OutputItems" ItemName="subPathItems "/>
  </MsBuildHelper>
</Target>

Otherwise, you could directly pass items with folderA and subPaths embedded :

<ItemGroup>
  <subPathIt Include="$(folderA)\$(path1)\**\*"/>
  <subPathIt Include="$(folderA)\$(path2)\**\*"/>
  <subPathIt Include="$(folderA)\$(path3)\file3.txt" Condition="Exists('$(path3)\file3.txt')"/>
</ItemGroup>


<Target Name="Replace_Copy1Path">
  <Copy SourceFiles="@(subPathItems )" 
        DestinationFiles="$(folderB)\%(RecursiveDir)\%(Filename)%(Extension)" />
</Target>

Answer 2

Thanks madgnome! But as you said, if we do

<ItemGroup>
  <files Include="$(folderA)\**\*; $(folderB)\**\*"/>
</ItemGroup>

, we won't have @files which contains all files in folderA and folderB, right?