Intermitent build issues of MSBuild repo - xml CDATA escaping not properly interpreted

[JanKrivanek]

Context

Intermittent build errors of our repo indicating that xml was incorrectly parsed and 'CDATA' escaping sequence spilled over into the content

C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(1,1): error CS1525: Invalid expression term '<' [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(1,10): error CS1003: Syntax error, ']' expected [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(1,10): error CS1002: ; expected [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(10,7): error CS1022: Type or namespace definition, or end-of-file expected [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(10,9): error CS8803: Top-level statements must precede namespace and type declarations. [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(10,9): error CS1525: Invalid expression term '>' [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(10,10): error CS1733: Expected expression [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]
C:\src\msbuild-2\artifacts\obj\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests\Debug\net472\BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs(10,10): error CS1002: ; expected [C:\src\msbuild-2\src\BuildCheck.UnitTests\Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj::TargetFramework=net472]

Looking on the file it complains about - it realy contains unexpected xml escaping sequences:

BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs:

<![CDATA[
namespace Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests
{
    internal sealed class BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants
    {
        public const string MicrosoftBuildPackageVersion = @"17.14.0-dev-24620-01";
        public const string RepoRoot = @"C:\src\msbuild-2\";
    }
}
      ]]>

It seems like the CDATA from the msbuild file was not properly interpreted:

msbuild/src/BuildCheck.UnitTests/Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj

Lines 53 to 74 in a71903d

	<Target Name="AddGeneratedFile" BeforeTargets="BeforeCompile;CoreCompile" Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects)" Outputs="$(IntermediateOutputPath)BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs">
	<PropertyGroup>
	<GeneratedText>
	<![CDATA[
	namespace Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests
	{
	internal sealed class BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants
	{
	public const string MicrosoftBuildPackageVersion = @"$(Version)"%3B
	public const string RepoRoot = @"$(RepoRoot)"%3B
	}
	}
	]]>
	</GeneratedText>
	<GeneratedFilePath>$(IntermediateOutputPath)BuildCheckUnitTestsConstants.cs</GeneratedFilePath>
	</PropertyGroup>
	<ItemGroup>
	<Compile Include="$(GeneratedFilePath)" />
	<FileWrites Include="$(GeneratedFilePath)" />
	</ItemGroup>
	<WriteLinesToFile Lines="$(GeneratedText)" File="$(GeneratedFilePath)" WriteOnlyWhenDifferent="true" Overwrite="true" />
	</Target>

Repro steps

I'm not sure about specific conditions - but it appears every couple full builds. Then I need to clean the artifacts folder and issue is gone for some time

Binlog

msbuild-cdata-issue.binlog.txt

Note

This seems related to https://devdiv.visualstudio.com/DevDiv/_workitems/edit/1980399/, https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Project-Generated-Files-Sometimes-Contai/10604117

[MichalPavlik]

I'm not able to reproduce the issue locally. @JanKrivanek, it's probably something that depends on the environment.

[JanKrivanek]

Caught this with evidence :-)

The file again appears already up to date to the batch build:

In procmon I can see this was update by msbuild spawned by the VS:

And the project it runs was apparently injected by ReSharper:

<Project DefaultTargets="ControllerTarget" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
 <UsingTask AssemblyFile="C:\Users\jankrivanek\AppData\Local\JetBrains\Installations\ReSharperPlatformVs17_f4389299_000\JetBrains.Platform.MsBuildTask.v17.dll" TaskName="JetBrains.Platform.MsBuildTask.ControllerTask" />
 <Target Name="ControllerTarget">
  <Message Importance="High" Text="Run controller from C:\Users\jankrivanek\AppData\Local\JetBrains\Installations\ReSharperPlatformVs17_f4389299_000\JetBrains.Platform.MsBuildTask.v17.dll" />
  <ControllerTask PortValue="59648" BuildToolVersion="17.14" LoggerPath="C:\Users\jankrivanek\AppData\Local\Temp\JetLogs\MsBuildTask\2025-01-17 15-28-24Z-MsBuildTask.log" />
 </Target>
</Project>

Gowodiz.proj

And from their log linked I can see it was really trying to build the project:

18:49:42.309 |I| Build                          | :82                            | Finish build part [1/2] for project 'Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj': Success
18:49:43.090 |I| Build                          | :85                            | Finish build part [2/2] for project 'Microsoft.Build.BuildCheck.UnitTests.csproj': Success

That being said - the issue is in ReSharper - I'll log issue with JB

[JanKrivanek]

While 3rd party product issue - just for consistency - unchecking the "Extensions -> ReSharper -> Options -> General -> Read solution model directly from project/solution files." reliably gets rid of the issue, while checking it reliably leads to the issue (with combination of switching branches/configs or accumulating specific changes within the inputs)

[JanKrivanek]

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RSRP-499811/JetBrains.Platform.MsBuildTask.ControllerTask-Incorrectly-process-CDATA-section-in-project-file