sdk: Can't run Desktop-Compiled MsBuild tasks installed from NuGet

Steps to reproduce

Create empty Web / Library project.
Add .less file with any valid content.
Install Web Compiler extension.
Enable compilation of the .less file.
Enable compilation on build.
Run dotnet restore.
Run dotnet build.

Expected behavior

The WebCompiler.CompilerBuildTask task should compile the .less file.

Actual behavior

An exception is thrown:

error MSB4062: The "WebCompiler.CompilerBuildTask" task could not be loaded from the assembly C:\Users\dusan\.nuget\packages\buildwebcompiler\1.11.326\build\..\tools\WebCompiler.exe. Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Utilities.v4.0, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'. The system cannot find the file specified. Confirm that the <UsingTask> declaration is correct, that the assembly and all its dependencies are available, and that the task contains a public class that implements Microsoft.Build.Framework.ITask. [H:\~Temp\MsBuildTask\MsBuildTask\MsBuildTask.csproj]

It is not related to this particular MsBuild task. AFAIK every task installed from nuget won’t work from command line. Everything works when running build with VS 2017 RC (15.0.26020.0 D15REL) or msbuild command.

Environment data

.NET Command Line Tools (1.0.0-preview4-004233)

Product Information:
 Version:            1.0.0-preview4-004233
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  8cec61c6f7

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.15014
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\1.0.0-preview4-004233

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 7 years ago
Comments: 16 (10 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

@ViktorHofer same issue here but using msbuild instead is not an option as it runs into a different set of problems in a solution of 50+ projects targeting either netstandard2.0 or net461.

Some suggestions say use “dotnet build” instead of msbuild, some other sources suggest the opposite. Problem is none of the two works reliably. Running any of them against a solution file doesn’t work at all, so we created our own build tool. It’s a big mess from the perspective of a maintainer of old-ish code (net461, old/new csproj file format) and new code (netstandard2.0). It’s just sad and disappointing, cause a large amount of wasted time.

No need to reopen this issue. Just need to vent somewhere. 😃

ManfredLange on Sep 19, 2017

Issue is resolved with newest Xamarin.Forms version! 👍

UPDATE: no it’s not. See below.

ViktorHofer on Apr 6, 2017