BundleResource with a quote (%27) in its name causes a build error

[rolfbjarne]

Test case:

rolfbjarne@f96c36e

Error:

tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(340,88): error MSB4113: Specified condition "$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('%(Identity)', '').StartsWith('$(AppBundleDir)/Contents/'))" evaluates to "$([MSBuild]::ValueOrDefault('bin/Debug/net8.0-maccatalyst/maccatalyst-arm64/MySimpleApp.app/Contents/Resources/Rolf's Quote.txt', '').StartsWith('$(AppBundleDir)/Contents/'))" instead of a boolean.

Binlog:

build-2024-02-07-154147.binlog.zip

[CartBlanche]

Thanks @rolfbjarne !

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne Can I assume this is very low priority because VS4Mac is disappearing, or will it be addressed soon because VSCode also ships on macOS?

[rolfbjarne]

@rolfbjarne Can I assume this is very low priority because VS4Mac is disappearing, or will it be addressed soon because VSCode also ships on macOS?

Neither?

It seems to me there's a simple workaround: don't use filenames with quotes, or is there a specific reason that doesn't work for you?

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne well that same audio file works in Xamarin Android and Xamarin Windows, with zero need for changes and the customer's content references that file specifically. There are 30-40 audio files with an apostrophe in the name. Maybe more.

As the code is shared across Xamarin.Forms projects it would be annoying to have an exception just for MacOS applications. This was previously working in older versions of Xamarin.Mac, so this is a regression after updating the project, after about 2 years. I obviously don't know in which version it broke.

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne @mrward Actually I just ported the same language macOS app to iOS and iOS accepts apostrophe path names. It builds and runs in the iPhone Simulator. They both share/point to the same apostrophe'd files. So maybe on macOS something else is happening?

[rolfbjarne]

Adding this to your csproj might work:

<Target Name="_CleanAppBundleRootDirectory" />

it just removes the target that causes the problem.

Can you try and see if it works for you?

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne should that actually be something like:

<Target Name="_CleanAppBundleRootDirectory">
  <Remove Dir="$(AppBundleRootDirectory)" />
</Target>

I just want to make sure I'm putting the right thing in the csproj.

[rolfbjarne]

@CartBlanche no, the target can be empty, it doesn't do anything all that important (it's just preventing a possible confusing codesigning error if there's extraneous files in the app bundle when the app bundle is signed - worst case you'll end up confused because of strange codesigning errors).

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne it doesn't get rid of the error. But I just noticed the actual executable, in Debug mode at Least, is created and runs, without that change. Tomorrow I'll see if I can build a Release version and sign it.

[CartBlanche]

@rolfbjarne Btw when I say runs, if doesn't run from the IDE, I have to manually run the exe, due to the build error stopping progress. Today I could build Release builds, but any projects that have the apostrophe error will not build a *.pkg file, nor will it allow archive for publishing, so I cannot sign them, due to the regression build error.