How do I have spaces in a MSBuild WebProjectOutputDir?

ChrisHDog picture ChrisHDog · Jun 29, 2009 · Viewed 11.3k times · Source

I am trying to call MSBuild from a command line. Everything was working fine when I was using a path that had no spaces, but now I have a path that has spaces and the command is failing.

Command (works):

"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" 
/t:Rebuild "C:\Projects\myProject.csproj" 
/p:OutDir=c:\temp\deploy\funAndGames\Deployment\bin\ 
/p:WebProjectOutputDir=c:\temp\deploy\funAndGames\Deployment\ 
/p:Configuration=Release

I then added quotes and changed OutDir to OutPath (doesn't work):

"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" 
/t:Rebuild "C:\Projects\myProject.csproj" 
/p:OutPath="c:\temp\deploy\funAndGames\Deployment\bin\" 
/p:WebProjectOutputDir="c:\temp\deploy\funAndGames\Deployment\" 
/p:Configuration=Release

What I am aiming for is something like this (doesn't work):

"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" 
/t:Rebuild "C:\Projects\myProject.csproj" 
/p:OutPath="c:\temp\deploy\fun and games\Deployment\bin\" 
/p:WebProjectOutputDir="c:\temp\deploy\fun and games\Deployment\" 
/p:Configuration=Release

Any help on the syntax around OutDir/OutPath and WebProjectOutputDir with spaces? Is it possible? If it isn't does anyone know what the reason is (due to some Url's not having spaces type thing?)

Answer

johnofcross picture johnofcross · Nov 3, 2009

Just found this out an answer to this old question. To handle spaces, you should use the escape character \ on all folders. Basically

/p:OutPath="c:\temp\deploy\fun and games\Deployment\bin\"

should be

/p:OutPath="c:\\temp\\deploy\\fun and games\\Deployment\\bin\\"

and magically it works!