The default settings of NUnit, TestRunner, and Test Driven Development all want different copies of the app.config at different locations. If ProjectName creates ProjectName.dll, then NUnit wants ProjectName.config, TR wants ProjectName.dll.config, and TDD wants TargetDir\ProjectName.dll.config. This is a lot of work to put in the post-build event of every unit test project, and can be even more work when another testing tool comes along that wants yet a new config filename. The best way to manage all of these file copies is through a common post-build event call.
Many probably opt for a NAnt script, but we found that passing in the required paths can sometimes cause NAnt to get confused, and it won’t properly parse the parameter listing. So, we went with a command file, instead.
CopyConfigs.cmd
rem for nunit
copy “%~1App.config” “%~1%~2.config”
rem for testrunner
copy “%~1App.config” “%~1%~2.dll.config”
rem for testdrivendevelopment
copy “%~1App.config” “%~3.config”
VS.Net Post Build Event
call “C:\MyPath\CopyConfigs.cmd” “$(ProjectDir)” “$(ProjectName) “$(TargetPath)”
VS.Net already includes a series of NAnt-like properties for project names, project directories, target [assembly] filenames, etc; these come in handy for creating a universal script. Placing the path references in quotes allows for spaces and other characters (Except more quotes) in the path. Executing the command file through a call allows us a little more versatility with the argument references (%~1 removes the surrounding quotes from the argument value, allowing us to append a few together without jacking the subsequent path).