.net core - What does <None Remove="..." /> mean in csproj?

Question

I'm working with a dotnet core csproj and I've added a new file. It doesn't initially get added to the csproj at all because of convention over configuration. But as soon as I change its Build Action from None to Embedded resource, two entries are written to the csproj file:

<None Remove="MyFile.sql" />

and

<EmbeddedResource Include="MyFile.sql" />

What does that first entry mean? It seems superfluous to me.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49784191/what-does-none-remove-mean-in-csproj

Answer 1

The sdk-style projects have a few automatic includes.

By default, the sdk has something like <None Include="**/*"> (simplified) that is added (included) before your project's contents. But you don't want your file to be in the "None" set, but in the "EmbeddedResource" set.

MSBuild doesn't have any problem with the files being in more than one item group, but it should only be in one so IDEs don't get confused (and display the file only once an show the correct build action).

So the two statements mean "remove it from the None set (items) and add it to the EmbeddedResource set (items)".