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copied!<p>The problem here is you are using the <code>ReadLinesFromFile</code> task in a manner it wasn't intended.</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>ReadLinesFromFile Task</strong><br> Reads a list of <em>items</em> from a text file.</p> </blockquote> <p>So it's not just reading all the text from a file, it's reading individual items from a file and returning an item group of ITaskItems. Whenever you output a list of items using the <code>@()</code> syntax you will get a separated list, the default of which is a semicolon. This example illustrates this behavior:</p> <pre><code><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5"> <ItemGroup> <Color Include="Red" /> <Color Include="Blue" /> <Color Include="Green" /> </ItemGroup> <Target Name="Build"> <Message Text="ItemGroup Color: @(Color)" /> </Target> </Project> </code></pre> <p>And the output looks like this:</p> <pre><code> ItemGroup Color: Red;Blue;Green </code></pre> <p>So while the best solution to your problem is to write an MSBuild task that reads a file into a <em>property</em> as a string an not a list of items, that's really not what you asked for. You asked if there was a <em>way</em> to put them back, and there is using <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171476.aspx" rel="noreferrer">MSBuild Transforms</a>.</p> <p>Transforms are used to create one list from another and also have the ability to transform using a custom separator. So the answer is to transform your list read in using <code>ReadItemsFromFile</code> into another list with newlines. Here is an example that does just that:</p> <pre><code><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5"> <ItemGroup> <File Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Test.txt" /> </ItemGroup> <Target Name="Build"> <ReadLinesFromFile File="@(File)"> <Output TaskParameter="Lines" ItemName="FileContents" /> </ReadLinesFromFile> <Message Text="FileContents: @(FileContents)" /> <Message Text="FileContents Transformed: @(FileContents->'%(Identity)', '%0a%0d')" /> </Target> </Project> </code></pre> <p>Test.text looks like:</p> <pre><code>Red Green Blue </code></pre> <p>And the output looks like this:</p> <pre><code>[C:\temp]:: msbuild test.proj Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 3.5.21022.8 [Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.1433] Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved. Build started 11/8/2008 8:16:59 AM. Project "C:\temp\test.proj" on node 0 (default targets). FileContents: Red;Green;Blue FileContents Transformed: Red Green Blue Done Building Project "C:\temp\test.proj" (default targets). Build succeeded. 0 Warning(s) 0 Error(s) Time Elapsed 00:00:00.03 </code></pre> <p>What's going on here is two things.</p> <pre><code>@(FileContents->'%(Identity)', '%0a%0d') </code></pre> <ul> <li>We are transforming the list from one type to another using the same values (<code>Identity</code>) but a custom separator <code>'%0a%0d'</code></li> <li>We are using <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228186.aspx" rel="noreferrer">MSBuild Escaping</a> to escape the line feed (<code>%0a</code>) and carriage return (<code>%0d</code>)</li> </ul>

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