How to get public token in ms post event macros

Question

I want to create a post build script that copies the generated pdb into the gac folder, like this: copy $(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\$(TargetName)\?Public Token? but i need the public token of the currently build project, is there a way to get this?

Answer 1

From your question, I think you're looking for something you can quickly add to your post-build event from Visual Studio. If you use XCOPY, you can specify a wildcard in the destination path. That might be sufficient for you:

XCOPY "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb" "%WINDIR%\Assembly\GAC_MSIL\$(TargetName)\*\"

Another option is to try to extract the public key token using the SN.exe provided with the framework. This might look something like:

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=5" %%T in (`sn.exe -q -T "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).dll"`) DO COPY ""$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb" "%WINDIR%\Assembly\GAC_MSIL\$(TargetName)\%%T\"

In reality, though, doesn't the target directory include the assembly version as well as the public key token?

Finally, you can always download the MSBuildExtensions library, which includes an Assembly task (or implement a custom task yourself). In this case, though, you'll need to edit your proj file manually.

Also, check out the this blog entry - it may be of interest to you.