tag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:/discussions/problems/4569-the-target-_convertpdbfiles-listed-in-a-beforetargets-attribute-at-c-does-not-exist-in-the-project-and-will-be-ignoredAppVeyor: Discussion 2018-10-19T08:17:51Ztag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-27T13:26:16Z2016-04-27T13:26:18ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Our builds are AppVeyor are generating warnings not reproducible
in local developer environments (see below for an example).</p>
<p>What is the root cause of these warnings, and how can we fix (or
suppress) these warnings?</p>
<p>I've done a preliminary search and technical investigation how
to resolve this problem, but no obvious solution jumps out yet.</p>
<p>For convenience, here's a link to an AppVeyor build line number
that shows these warnings: <a href="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/0.8.78/job/bx9yca9vvw5bppiw#L83">
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/0.8.78/job/bx...</a></p>
<p>To demonstrate the extent of this problem, search that page for
the text "and will be ignored" (208 results)</p>
<p>And a link to <code>.appveyor.yml</code> (the account is
configured to use this custom filename): <a href="https://github.com/nanomsg/nanomsg/blob/master/.appveyor.yml">https://github.com/nanomsg/nanomsg/blob/master/.appveyor.yml</a></p>
<p>And in case it's related, a link to the CMake script invoked for
the build: <a href="https://github.com/nanomsg/nanomsg/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt">https://github.com/nanomsg/nanomsg/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt</a></p>
<p>So that others might easily find this issue in a web search,
here's a representative dump of some of the warnings:<br></p>
<pre>
<code>The target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (34,37)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CollectPdbFiles" listed in an AfterTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (34,70)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CollectMdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (40,38)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CopyMdbFiles" listed in an AfterTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (40,71)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (34,37)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CollectPdbFiles" listed in an AfterTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (34,70)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CollectMdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (40,38)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.
The target "_CopyMdbFiles" listed in an AfterTargets attribute at "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets (40,71)" does not exist in the project, and will be ignored.</code>
</pre>
<p>Thank you kindly in advance,<br>
-JRD</p></div>Jacktag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-27T17:33:08Z2016-04-27T17:33:08ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Hi Jack,</p>
<p>It comes from Xamarin targets and those are not warnings
(meaning they are not treated by msbuild as warnings), but
messages. I reported about the issue on Xamarin forums (and there
were others), but didn't submit a bug: <a href="https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/55861/stable-release-xamarin-4-cycle-6-feature-release/p2">
https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/55861/stable-release-xamarin-...</a></p></div>Feodor Fitsnertag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-27T22:51:29Z2016-04-27T22:51:30ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Any ideas on how we can disable these Xamarin targets, or
otherwise change the AppVeyor environment to avoid these
messages?</p>
<p>Thank you,<br>
-JRD</p></div>Jacktag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-28T01:34:39Z2016-04-28T01:34:39ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>I'm not sure if this is something we can easily fix on our side,
but it should be Xamarin to fix. You can set msbuild verbosity to
<code>minimal</code> to get rid of those messages from build
log.</p>
<p>Locally I have the same messages in my build logs with clean VS
2015 Update 2 + Xamarin - see attached.</p>
<p>Nuget had <a href="https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/1814">the same issue</a> in
the past and they fixed it <a href="https://github.com/NuGet/NuGet.BuildTasks/pull/7/files">like
that</a>.</p></div>Feodor Fitsnertag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-28T14:00:26Z2016-04-28T14:00:26ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Thank you for the screenshot -- this means that if I installed
Xamarin locally, it could probably be reproduced, and perhaps
worked-around.</p>
<p>That said, Xamarin is a third-party dependency our project is
not using, and in the context of this particular support case a
liability for you; are there any low-barrier options for
disabling/suppressing it in the AppVeyor environment?</p>
<p>Kind regards,<br>
-JRD</p></div>Jacktag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-28T17:18:26Z2016-04-28T17:18:26ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Deleting Xamarin targets file removes those messages:</p>
<pre>
<code>before_build:
- del "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\Xamarin.Common.targets"</code>
</pre></div>Feodor Fitsnertag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372016-04-29T01:30:49Z2016-04-29T01:30:50ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>This hint cut an appreciable bit of noise from the output! This
a viable workaround for the meantime. Thank you kindly for the help
here.</p>
<p>Before: <a href="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/0.8.78/job/bx9yca9vvw5bppiw">
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/0.8.78/job/bx...</a></p>
<p>After: <a href="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/job/k0qmtb6a6exn6hkl">
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/nanomsg/nanomsg/build/job/k0qmtb6a6...</a></p>
<p>-JRD</p></div>Jacktag:help.appveyor.com,2012-11-13:Comment/397426372017-07-03T17:11:36Z2017-07-03T17:11:36ZThe target "_ConvertPdbFiles" listed in a BeforeTargets attribute at "C:\..." does not exist in the project, and will be ignored<div><p>Thanks for the workaround, using it <a href="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/qris/boxbackup/build/job/lxn6a9qa4pw2y4c8">here</a> too!</p></div>chris+appveyor