`dotnet publish --no-build` fails in a repo using Microsoft.Build.Traversal

[alexrp]

Context (and repro steps):

• dotnet/sdk#18206
• dotnet/sdk#18206 (comment)

Seems like this may be a regression of #125?

[alexrp]

Also seems to happen with dotnet pack.

[jeffkl]

Thanks I'll try and look at this today and see if I can figure out the problem!

[jeffkl]

@alexrp this celerity repo is using a Vezel.Zig.Sdk, which has highly customized the .NET SDK and I believe is leading to the problem. I cannot repro with a simple setup:

dirs.proj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.Build.Traversal/3.4.0">
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="ProjectA\ProjectA.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="ProjectB\ProjectB.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

The dotnet build --no-restore and dotnet build --no-restore --no-build command respect the targest to run:

D:\repros\traversal-no-build>dotnet restore
  Determining projects to restore...
  All projects are up-to-date for restore.

D:\repros\traversal-no-build>dotnet build --no-restore
MSBuild version 17.5.0+6f08c67f3 for .NET
  ProjectB -> D:\repros\traversal-no-build\ProjectB\bin\Debug\net6.0\ProjectB.dll
  ProjectA -> D:\repros\traversal-no-build\ProjectA\bin\Debug\net6.0\ProjectA.dll

Build succeeded.
    0 Warning(s)
    0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.73

D:\repros\traversal-no-build>dotnet publish --no-restore --no-build
MSBuild version 17.5.0+6f08c67f3 for .NET
  ProjectB -> D:\repros\traversal-no-build\ProjectB\bin\Debug\net6.0\publish\
  ProjectA -> D:\repros\traversal-no-build\ProjectA\bin\Debug\net6.0\publish\

Do you have a repro with a set of projects that only use the .NET SDK?

[alexrp]

Thanks for taking a look; that's interesting. The errors popped up in projects completely unrelated to the src/runtime/native project that's using my Zig SDK (e.g. src/generators), so it didn't even occur to me that the issue could be there. 🤔

C:\program files\dotnet\sdk\8.0.100-preview.2.23157.25\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(161,5): error NETSDK1085: The 'NoBuild' property was set to true but the 'Build' target was invoked. [C:\Users\alex\source\repos\vezel\celerity\src\generators\generators.csproj]

I tried removing all references to the native project, and sure enough, it now works. What's curious is that dotnet build && dotnet publish --no-build in e.g. src/runtime/core (which references src/runtime/native) works fine. It only seems to break if done from the repo root (where celerity.proj using Microsoft.Build.Traversal sits).

I would assume that the fault lies with my SDK somehow. Do you happen to know if Traversal has some special requirements for how the Publish target is set up that the regular .NET SDK does not?

[jeffkl]

I'm not 100% sure, the Traversal SDK is essentially just dispatching the Publish target to each project, similar to what a solution file would do.

https://github.com/microsoft/MSBuildSdks/blob/main/src/Traversal/Sdk/Sdk.targets#L234

The only fancy logic is that if you specify --no-build, the .NET CLI passes a global property, NoBuild=true which Traversal respects by not making Publish depend on Build.

https://github.com/microsoft/MSBuildSdks/blob/main/src/Traversal/Sdk/Sdk.targets#L100-L105

For --no-restore, the NET CLI just doesn't invoke the Restore target first. I would imagine the problem is somewhere in your SDK the NoBuild property isn't being respected?