Pass MSBuild variables to linker in Votive

Question

I am attempting to dynamically name the output of my WiX installer project, so that the resulting MSI is MyProject-Version-Configuration.msi (e.g. MyProject-1.2.0.1325-Debug). Since the name of the output file is set by the linker (light.exe), I thought that I would use the Additional Parameters in the Tool Settings of the WiX project thusly:

-out $(TargetDir)MyProject-$(Version)-$(Configuration)$(TargetExt)

Unfortunately, $(TargetDir) and $(TargetExt) are not being evaluated when the project runs, so light receives:

-out MyProject-1.2.0.1325-Debug

which obviously does not produce the correct output. Given that $(Configuration) is set correctly, I wonder why $(TargetDir) and $(TargetExt) are not?

I can work around the issue by using the post-build event to rename the output file, and then I do have access to the $(TargetDir) and $(TargetExt) properties, but I would like to know why the linker does not receive the correct command.

Answer 1

You need to edit .wixproj file and make this change outside Visual Studio. As far as I remember Votive incorrectly escapes some characters (AFAIR it replaces $ with $$).