Azure pipeline task DotNetCoreCLI#2 - output folder of artifact - azure

Question

In our .NET Web API project, we tried to build API project in Azure DevOps and publish the artifact to a folder with the pipeline task below:
- task: DotNetCoreCLI#2
displayName: Publish web API artifact
inputs:
command: publish
publishWebProjects: false
arguments: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\XYZ.Research.API\XYZ.Research.API.csproj --configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --output testpath'
zipAfterPublish: true
modifyOutputPath: true
But I am not sure which folder the artifact is kept. Below is the log from this step:
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6282186Z ##[section]Starting: Publish web API artifact
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6590490Z ==============================================================================
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6591051Z Task : .NET Core
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6591393Z Description : Build, test, package, or publish a dotnet application, or run a custom dotnet command
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6591740Z Version : 2.172.2
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6591974Z Author : Microsoft Corporation
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6592357Z Help : https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/dotnet-core-cli
2020-07-31T12:04:23.6592942Z ==============================================================================
2020-07-31T12:04:25.5581194Z [command]C:\windows\system32\chcp.com 65001
2020-07-31T12:04:25.5581889Z Active code page: 65001
2020-07-31T12:04:25.5583746Z Info: .NET Core SDK/runtime 2.2 and 3.0 are now End of Life(EOL) and have been removed from all hosted agents. If you're using these SDK/runtimes on hosted agents, kindly upgrade to newer versions which are not EOL, or else use UseDotNet task to install the required version.
2020-07-31T12:04:25.5588792Z [command]C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\dotnet\dotnet.exe publish d:\a\1\s\XYZ.Research.API\XYZ.Research.API.csproj --configuration Release --output testpath
.....
some warning message ignored
.....
2020-07-31T12:04:38.0843543Z XYZ.Research.API -> d:\a\1\s\XYZ.Research.API\bin\Release\netcoreapp3.0\XYZ.Research.API.dll
2020-07-31T12:04:38.9127845Z XYZ.Research.API -> d:\a\1\s\testpath\
2020-07-31T12:04:46.0295716Z Info: Azure Pipelines hosted agents have been updated to contain .Net Core 3.x (3.1) SDK/Runtime along with 2.1. Unless you have locked down a SDK version for your project(s), 3.x SDK might be picked up which might have breaking behavior as compared to previous versions.
2020-07-31T12:04:46.0296632Z Some commonly encountered changes are:
2020-07-31T12:04:46.0297619Z If you're using `Publish` command with -o or --Output argument, you will see that the output folder is now being created at root directory rather than Project File's directory. To learn about more such changes and troubleshoot, refer here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/dotnet-core-cli?view=azure-devops#troubleshooting
2020-07-31T12:04:46.0442329Z ##[section]Finishing: Publish web API artifact
Because we will need the file location in next step (deployment), I tried
d:\a\1\s\testpath\XYZ.Reserch.API.zip
d:\a\1\s\testpath\XYZ.Reserch.API\XYZ.Reserch.API.zip
but none of these location has the artifact file.
Did anyone see this issue before? Any help would be appreciated.
------------------- update -------------------------------
As #Source Code suggested, I used task "PowerShell#2" and find that the artifact file are actually in "D:\a\1\s\testpath\testpath.zip". That means the 'testpath' sub-folder are created in $(Build.SourceDirectory) and the artifact file are also renamed to 'test.zip'.

Answer 1

I would recommend that you add a PowerShell/Bash/Cmd task after your DotNetCoreCLI#2 task and run a inline script with the 'ls' command that should list all the items to the results for you. This will allow you to see what is actually there after the task.
If on a Windows agent:
- task: PowerShell#2
displayName: List Files Post Publish
inputs:
targetType: inline
script: Get-ChildItem
If on Linux or Mac
- task: Bash#3
displayName: List Files Post Publish
inputs:
targetType: inline
script: ls
Additionally I noticed you're providing your csproj file via the arguments parameter. There is a parameter named projects which should be used for this. Also you may consider using the the artifacts staging directory as your output directory. The task would look like this:
- task: DotNetCoreCLI#2
displayName: Publish web API artifact
inputs:
command: publish
projects: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)\XYZ.Research.API\XYZ.Research.API.csproj'
publishWebProjects: false
arguments: '--configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
zipAfterPublish: true
modifyOutputPath: true
One important thing to note is if you do change the output directory ensure that you change the working directory for the PowerShell or Bash tasks so you output the contents of the correct directory. It defaults to the $(Build.SourcesDirectory) so ensure that you change this if needed.