MSBuild Community Taks RegexReplace remove trailing slash from path

Question

I am trying to use MSBuild community tasks to remove the slash from the end of the OutputPath

This is what i have so far.

<RegexReplace Input="$(OutputPath)" Expression="\$" Replacement="" Count="1">
 <Output ItemName="FormattedOutputPath" TaskParameter="Output" />
</RegexReplace>
<Message Text="@(FormattedOutputPath)"/>

Unfortunately the message just returns my path still with the slash on the end. The path is C:\MyDirectory\

It looks like my expression is incorrect

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Slash is using as an escape character, so in pattern you have to escape slash character by another slash:

<RegexReplace Input="$(OutputPath)" Expression="\\$" Replacement="" Count="1">
  <Output ItemName="FormattedOutputPath" TaskParameter="Output" />
</RegexReplace>
<Message Text="@(FormattedOutputPath)"/>

To better understand escaping see the following examples:

1. $ represents end of line/string
2. \$ represents dollar sign character
3. \\ represents slash character
4. \\$ represents slash character at the end of line/string