dotnet publish: AfterTargets="AfterPublish" triggers before publish is complete

catmanjan 61

Can someone look at this Github issue and help resolve it for us?

https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/issues/46999

Arko 335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-02-27T07:39:51.84+00:00
Hi catmanjan, I was going through your Github link and I saw you told Baron that

<Target Name="RestartPod" AfterTargets="PublishContainer"> <Exec Command="az aks get-credentials -g hydraKubernetes -n hydra" /> <Exec Command="kubectl rollout restart deployment hydra" /> </Target>

did not work.

Instead, could you kindly try updating your target as below

<Target Name="RestartPod" AfterTargets="Publish"> <Exec Command="az aks get-credentials -g hydraKubernetes -n hydra" /> <Exec Command="kubectl rollout restart deployment hydra" /> </Target>

and then run below command and share the logs to see if the restart pod shows up in the logs

dotnet publish /v:diag

Additionally, I would like to request that you update the DotNet code, the Dockerfile, your ACR and AKS details and the error logs here. This will help us narrow down the issue and gain a clearer understanding of where the problem is actually originating.
catmanjan 61 Reputation points

2025-02-27T23:32:18.9566667+00:00

Hello, we are not using the command line, we are using the publish feature from within Visual Studio - obviously I will not be able to provide you with my code or access to our ACR, but you should be able to reproduce the issue yourself by setting up a basic docker enabled project and pushing to your own ACR - no matter what you do the final container push occurs after the publish pipeline completes...
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
kobulloc-MSFT 26,431 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-01T04:41:06.5466667+00:00
Hello @catmanjan ,

We've reviewed the GitHub thread and feel that the best route forward is to get some Visual Studio experts to look at this issue, similar to what baronfel recommended. To make sure that we get you connected to the right people, we are going to change the tag to Visual Studio/Visual Studio Debugging. If there is an Azure component to the root cause that we can address, please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Additional options for Visual Studio support:

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/support/

Reference from the GitHub issue you opened to help with troubleshooting: https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/issues/46999

baronfel @catmanjan thanks for those binlogs - they were very helpful! Ok, so it's as I expected - your pubxml is using the VS Docker tools to do publishing, not the .NET SDK - your pubxml is using the ContainerRegistry PublishProvider and the Custom WebPublishMethod. The expected way to trigger the .NET SDK container publishing is via the Container WebPublishMethod. I feel like a lot of the confusion in this issue is because of the mixing of these two related-but-separate deployment methods. You are not using the SDK container publishing here, you're using the Microsoft.Docker VS tools - those tools likely have some customization that only push the container after the related Publish call occurs.

I believe that you should log one in VS Developer Community for the Docker Tools team to investigate - that's how that team responses to user feedback. Sorry for the back-and-forth!
catmanjan 61 Reputation points

2025-03-01T11:19:03.9066667+00:00

That Visual Studio support link gives me a 404 - I also can't figure out how to post on the VS Developer Community, the only option it gives is to "suggest a feature" as far as I can tell...

We pay a lot for Visual Studio licenses, and now we pay for developer support, surely someone should be helping me rather than just telling me to ask somewhere else?
kobulloc-MSFT 26,431 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-01T17:32:14.2366667+00:00

Hello @catmanjan ,

That appears to be a Q&A bug as the link URL is being duplicated (I've reported this and hopefully it will be corrected soon). Try copying and pasting the following if the updated link still doesn't work:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/support/

I'm very sorry for the redirection and while I'm happy to help with Azure services, you'll have a much better experience if you work with someone who is an expert in Visual Studio in this case. Sorry again for the redirect!

1 answer

Ryan Hill 29,851 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-04T19:37:08.04+00:00
Hey @catmanjan

We did circle with the team internally; and the build process is working as expected. The <Target /> definitions you defined are evaluated by MSBuild as part of a core process and publish steps, i.e. <DockerPublish/> are executed post the core step. The way to think of it, VS:

Pre: verify pre-requisites

Core: build (projects, images) and execute targets

Post: push the image

That's why you're seeing this type of experience. The VS IDE isn't suitable for this type of customizable build. Having a CI/CD pipeline would be the best preferable option, but I know you've stated using the IDE for your build and publish.

To that end, the only way I know of to get around this is separating your build and publish into two or more different proj files. You'll want one to reference the project being built and have those artifacts saved to a destination folder and pushed and a second one to execute your kubectl commands.

Feel free though pass feedback to the team about this issue. The team will capture the feedback and evaluate it. You can always submit feedback and issues through the Visual Studio IDE; see Report a problem with Visual Studio - Visual Studio (Windows) | Microsoft Learn.
Please sign in to rate this answer.
catmanjan 61 Reputation points

2025-03-04T22:52:26.8133333+00:00

I don't think it is expected. If I set something to occur "AfterPublish" I'd expect it to occur after publish, not just before.

Other publish targets like file system, etc work as most developers would expect, why not ACR?

Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Ryan Hill 29,851 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-05T00:45:04.67+00:00

Hey @catmanjan, MSBuild is run in that middle core step I outlined earlier. The docker push step is not evaluated by MSBuild is ran afterwards in the post step. That's why the behavior is as expected.

Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

catmanjan 61 Reputation points

2025-03-05T01:46:12.42+00:00

I really challenge the phrase "behavior is as expected" - I understand that it currently works this way, but it shouldn't - I don't think a reasonable developer would expect AfterPublish to not be after publishing...

Antonio Villanueva 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-06T23:58:47.3166667+00:00

Hey, @catmanjan

I'm part of VS IDE engineering team that owns the Publish Experience. Let me elaborate bit further on the current implementation, and why a "step" defined in the Publish profile (.puxml) runs in the 'Core-Publish' step and why Docker publish runs afterwards.

Docker publish step runs in the 'Post-publish' because it is a customization provided by VS IDE. This publish "processing" depends on a 3rd party (e.g. docker.exe, Azure REST APIs, etc.), and not by MSBuild/.NET SDK itself.

As these "pre", "post" steps run outside the context of MSBuild/.NET SDK, our current implementation is not "hooked up" so it can be called from within the execution of the "core" pubish process, where the .pubxml evaluation is performed. We wait for the core-publish process to be completed/not started, so we can proceed with our customization(s).

I won't say it is not possible to include the 'docker publish' step as part of the core-publish process, but our current implementation does not consider it.
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.

Share via

dotnet publish: AfterTargets="AfterPublish" triggers before publish is complete

1 answer

Your answer