Property definition that impacts generated AssemblyInfo doesn't support CData

[NTaylorMullen]

From @NTaylorMullen on November 1, 2016 18:30

Adding a <Description> to my csproj that looks like:

<Description><![CDATA[Line 1
Line 2
Line 3]]></Description>

Results in the following error when trying to build:

MSBUILD : error MSB4025: The project file could not be loaded. Name cannot begin with the '<' character, hexadecimal value 0x3C. Line 7, position 44.

Copied from original issue: dotnet/sdk#347

[rainersigwald]

This works in MSBuild 14, but fails in MSBuild 15.

[cdmihai]

@NTaylorMullen I tried both .netcore and full framework msbuild and they both seem to work. Can you please paste in a full repro project that fails for you, as well as the output from msbuild /version and whether it's the .net core or the full version?

Here's the project that I tested on:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <Description><![CDATA[
    <Target Name="Build">
        <ItemGroup>
           <foo Remove=""/>
        </ItemGroup>
        <Message Text="-@(foo)-"/>
    </Target>]]></Description>
    <p><![CDATA[Line 1
Line 2
Line 3]]></p>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <ItemGroup>
       <i Include="a">
          <m><![CDATA[Line 1
Line 2
Line 3]]></m>
       </i>
    </ItemGroup>

    <Target Name="Build">
        <Message Text="$(Description)" Importance="High"/>
        <Message Text="$(p)" Importance="High"/>

        <Message Text="@(i->'%(m)')" Importance="High"/>
    </Target>
</Project>

[NTaylorMullen]

Project File (from dotnet new, and then added the description):

<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" />

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.0</TargetFramework>
    <Description><![CDATA[Line 1
Line 2
Line 3]]></Description>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="**\*.cs" />
    <EmbeddedResource Include="**\*.resx" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NETCore.App">
      <Version>1.0.1</Version>
    </PackageReference>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
      <Version>1.0.0-alpha-20161104-2</Version>
      <PrivateAssets>All</PrivateAssets>
    </PackageReference>
  </ItemGroup>

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

Then trying to run results in this:

C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild> dotnet restore
  Restoring packages for C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj...
  Writing lock file to disk. Path: C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\obj\project.assets.json
  Generating MSBuild file C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\obj\msbuild.csproj.nuget.g.targets.
  Generating MSBuild file C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\obj\msbuild.csproj.nuget.g.props.
  Restore completed in 2436.5539ms for C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj.

  NuGet Config files used:
      C:\Users\nimullen\AppData\Roaming\NuGet\NuGet.Config

  Feeds used:
      https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/
C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild> dotnet run
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(8,59): error CS1010: Newline in constant [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(8,66): error CS1003: Syntax error, ',' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(9,6): error CS1003: Syntax error, ',' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(9,7): error CS1003: Syntax error, ',' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(10,6): error CS1003: Syntax error, ',' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(10,7): error CS1003: Syntax error, ',' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(10,7): error CS1010: Newline in constant [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(16,69): error CS1026: ) expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]
obj\Debug\netcoreapp1.0\msbuild.AssemblyInfo.cs(16,69): error CS1003: Syntax error, ']' expected [C:\Users\nimullen\Documents\temp\msbuild\msbuild.csproj]

The build failed. Please fix the build errors and run again.

On closer inspection it looks like the system is generating the msbuild assembly info file incorrectly. It looks like:

// Generated by the MSBuild WriteCodeFragment class.

using System;
using System.Reflection;

[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyCompanyAttribute("msbuild")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyConfigurationAttribute("Debug")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyDescriptionAttribute("Line 1
Line 2
Line 3")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersionAttribute("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute("1.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyProductAttribute("msbuild")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyTitleAttribute("msbuild")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersionAttribute("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Resources.NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute("en")]

Lastly msbuild version is 15.1.0.0 and dotnet --info:

.NET Command Line Tools (1.0.0-preview4-004079)

Product Information:
 Version:            1.0.0-preview4-004079
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  43dfa6b8ba

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.14393
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64

@rainersigwald must have also tested a property that impacts the assembly info. I've updated the title.

[cdmihai]

OK, I can also replicate the bad syntax in the generated AssemblyInfo.

What about the parsing CDATA error inside the actual msbuild file? Is that still an issue for you? If yes, can you please post the project file?