c# - .NET Core include folder in publish

Question

I have the following folder structure for my .NET Core 2.1 project:

How can I include folder AppData and all of its subfolders and files when I publish the solution?

I tried adding this to .csproj file but it didn't work:

<ItemGroup>
    <Folder Include="AppData*" />
</ItemGroup>

EDIT

I also tried with this and it didn't work:

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="AppData**" LinkBase="AppData" />
</ItemGroup>

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54762744/net-core-include-folder-in-publish

Answer 1

Adding this:

<ItemGroup> 
  <Content Include="AppData**"> 
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> 
  </Content> 
</ItemGroup>

to your .csproj file will copy AppData folder if it's not empty. For empty AppData folder you can use this workaround:

<Target Name="CreateAppDataFolder" AfterTargets="AfterPublish">
  <MakeDir Directories="$(PublishDir)AppData" Condition="!Exists('$(PublishDir)AppData')" /> 
</Target>

This will create AppData folder after publish if it won't be already included in output. Meaning this will create AppData folder only if it's empty while publishing.