MSBuild - Circular dependency in the target dependency graph - tfs

Question

I am getting the following error in my build
Error MSB4006: There is a circular dependency in the target dependency graph involving target "DoPublish".
The DoPublish is triggering Publish and I assume the Build. How can I avoid this.
I am using the Visual Studio build. I was using the MSBUILD with the targets /t:UpdateVersion;DoPublish;publish, which worked. I would like to use the Visual Studio build in TFS instead of MSBUILD
Project:
<Target Name="UpdateVersion" AfterTargets="PostBuildEvent">
<RevisionTask>
<Output TaskParameter="PublishVersion" PropertyName="PublishVersion" />
</RevisionTask>
<Message Text="The Version is $(PublishVersion)" Importance="high" />
<PropertyGroup>
<ApplicationVersion>$(PublishVersion)</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ConfigFile Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Configs\$(Configuration)\AppDeploy.config" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ConfigFile)" DestinationFolder="$(TargetDir)" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV' OR '$(Configuration)' == 'SIT' OR '$(Configuration)' == 'UAT' " ContinueOnError="true" />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ConfigFile)" DestinationFolder="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV' OR '$(Configuration)' == 'SIT' OR '$(Configuration)' == 'UAT' " ContinueOnError="true" />
<Message Text="Copying File from $(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Configs\$(Configuration)\Web.config to $(TargetDir)" Importance="high" />
</Target>
<Target Name="DoPublish" AfterTargets="UpdateVersion" Condition=" '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != '' ">
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectFileName)" Targets="Publish" Properties="ApplicationVersion=$(PublishVersion)" />
<!-- Write publish.htm file for ClickOnce -->
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {PublishVersion} with $(PublishVersion)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{PublishVersion}" ReplacementText="$(PublishVersion)" />
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {AssemblyName} with $(AssemblyName)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{AssemblyName}" ReplacementText="$(AssemblyName)" />
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {ProductName} with $(ProductName)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{ProductName}" ReplacementText="$(ProductName)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" DestinationFiles="$(PublishDir)publish.htm" />
</Target>

Answer 1

I created a web app project and tested this on my environment (TFS2015) with following of your code kept:
<Target Name="UpdateVersion" AfterTargets="PostBuildEvent">
<Message Text="The Version is $(PublishVersion)" Importance="high" />
<PropertyGroup>
<ApplicationVersion>$(PublishVersion)</ApplicationVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Copying File from $(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Configs\$(Configuration)\Web.config to $(TargetDir)" Importance="high" />
</Target>
<Target Name="DoPublish" AfterTargets="UpdateVersion" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != 'true'">
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectFileName)" Targets="Publish" />
</Target>
But I couldn't reproduce this issue. The build can be completed successfully. I can only see MSB4006 error when "Target="Publish" isn't added in "DoPublish" target.
I changed Condition=" '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != '' " to Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != 'true'" as the BuildingInsideVisualStudio value is always empty under my environment. "DoPublish" target does not run with Condition=" '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != '' ".
Since I cannot add comment, I have a question need to check here: What do you mean by using the Visual Studio build in TFS instead of MSBUILD?

Answer 2

After seeing this post I came up with similar solution overriding the AfterPubish target.
To correct the circular dependency, just change the target name to AfterPublish and removed the AfterTargerts attribute.
<Target Name="AfterPublish" Condition=" '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != '' ">
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectFileName)" Targets="Publish" Properties="ApplicationVersion=$(PublishVersion)" />
<!-- Write publish.htm file for ClickOnce -->
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {PublishVersion} with $(PublishVersion)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{PublishVersion}" ReplacementText="$(PublishVersion)" />
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {AssemblyName} with $(AssemblyName)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{AssemblyName}" ReplacementText="$(AssemblyName)" />
<Message Text="FileUpdate - $(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm: Replace {ProductName} with $(ProductName)" Importance="high" />
<FileUpdate Files="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" IgnoreCase="true" Multiline="true" Singleline="false" Regex="{ProductName}" ReplacementText="$(ProductName)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)\Configs\publish.htm" DestinationFiles="$(PublishDir)publish.htm" />
</Target>