Folder publish should publish empty folders

[vijayrkn]

Currently folder publish only publishes folders with files in them.

expected:
Folder publish should publish empty folders as well.

[guardrex]

Related: https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/1396 [but it's soooo old (project.json) that it's only barely relevant]

@dasMulli linked issue is a better xref: aspnet/AspNetCoreModule#30

[GuerrillaCoder]

Any update on this issue?

[guardrex]

Looks like it's still "up for grabs."

I'm still doing this ...

<Target Name="CreateLogsFolder" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <MakeDir Directories="$(PublishDir)Logs" 
           Condition="!Exists('$(PublishDir)Logs')" />
  <WriteLinesToFile File="$(PublishDir)Logs\.log" 
                    Lines="Generated file" 
                    Overwrite="True" 
                    Condition="!Exists('$(PublishDir)Logs\.log')" />
</Target>

... not so good, but it works.

[dasMulli]

NuGet and others use marker files (foo\_._) to make sure a folder doesn't get deleted.
having empty folders also doesn't work if you're using git version control or similar anyway so it's even hard to have a project with an empty folder.

VS actually uses a Folder item in project files to make sure that the project system will show a folder-based node even if the folder doesn't exist - like for wwwroot.
Publish tasks could make use of that item and create it on publish, e.g. if the folder has some metadata or just by default. Then you could add a <Folder Include="Logs" /> even if there's no folder on disk. You also won't be able to use wildcards here (Include="L*")

[alexandis]

Looks like it's still "up for grabs."

I'm still doing this ...

<Target Name="CreateLogsFolder" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <MakeDir Directories="$(PublishDir)Logs" 
           Condition="!Exists('$(PublishDir)Logs')" />
  <WriteLinesToFile File="$(PublishDir)Logs\.log" 
                    Lines="Generated file" 
                    Overwrite="True" 
                    Condition="!Exists('$(PublishDir)Logs\.log')" />
</Target>

... not so good, but it works.

For me, it does not work. I am publishing web applications under Default Web Site. And this command does not create any folders.

[Jalalx]

Does it need to have an option like --include-empty-folders?

[mrlife]

Would this be a good way to indicate to create an empty folder on publish if it doesn't exist?

<ItemGroup>
    <Folder Include="wwwroot\images\" />
</ItemGroup>

[StrajnarFilip]

Is this issue supposed to be fixed in SDK, or msbuild?