generate a version.text in obj folder when publish and make it to copy to publish folder

[John0King]

my project is a traditional asp.net mvc project.
I'm using "FileSystem" to publish the web site, I successed generated the version.txt base a msbuild property

<Target Name="_Generate_version_txt" BeforeTargets="ResolveFrameworkReferences" Condition="'$(MSBuildProjectName)' == 'MyProjectName' And '$(WebPublishMethod)' != ''  ">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <VersionFilePath>$([System.IO.Path]::Combine('$(IntermediateOutputPath)','version.txt'))</VersionFilePath>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <WriteLinesToFile File="$(VersionFilePath)" Lines="Version:$(VersionX)" Overwrite="true" />
  <!--<Copy SourceFiles="$(VersionFilePath)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)"></Copy>-->
  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="@(VersionFilePath)">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <CopyToPublishDirectory>Always</CopyToPublishDirectory>
      <DestinationRelativePath>Version.txt</DestinationRelativePath>
      <TargetPath>Version.txt</TargetPath>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

but I have trouble on make the obj/version.txt copy to publish folder , I tried using copy task to copy it to publish folder directly, but then I find out that it will delete all the "additional" files when publish

[GangWang01]

<Content Include="@(VersionFilePath)"> has a small mistake on the syntax referencing the property. It should be $(VersionFilePath) prefixing the property with $ rather than @.
The following cleaned target should work for your purpose.

<Target Name="_Generate_version_txt" BeforeTargets="ResolveFrameworkReferences" Condition="'$(MSBuildProjectName)' == 'MSBuildProjectName' And '$(WebPublishMethod)' != ''  ">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <VersionFilePath>$([System.IO.Path]::Combine('$(IntermediateOutputPath)','version.txt'))</VersionFilePath>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <WriteLinesToFile File="$(VersionFilePath)" Lines="Version:$(VersionX)" Overwrite="true" />
  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="$(VersionFilePath)">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <TargetPath>Version.txt</TargetPath>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

[John0King]

it actually doesn't work , The asp.net project seems very special， some thoughts are :

a) because I generate it on obj/Release/Version.txt , so the publish step doesn't care (remove it from publish source),
b) or my target runs too later (ps. I use BeforeTargets="Build")

[John0King]

@GangWang01 Thank , and I search the web today , then I found this micorosoft doc, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-forms/overview/deployment/visual-studio-web-deployment/deploying-extra-files
it depends on a <FilesForPackagingFromProject /> item , and DestinationRelativePath metadata