CRUD dotnet commands for MSBuild properties

Would be nice if dotnet had commands to add/read/change/remove properties in an MSBuild file.

Example: dotnet prop set VersionSuffix beta Would update project to include, or would alter its value if it already exists

<PropertyGroup>
   <VersionSuffix>beta</VersionSuffix>
</PropertyGroup>

Example 2: Reading properties values.

$ dotnet prop get OutputType
Exe

Scenarios:

• Tools like dotnet-user-secrets may want to read or manipulate a property in the csproj. Example feature on this tool: https://github.com/aspnet/DotNetTools/issues/166
• Good for automation scripts such as auto-updating versions. Ex: dotnet prop set VersionPrefix 2.0.0
• Support reading multiple properties at once. This would simplify MSBuild interaction for CLI tools such as ‘dotnet-ef’ that need multiple properties from a project.

cc @blackdwarf

[natemcmaster]

Could we start with “get” and do “set” later?

Almost all CLI tools need to read properties like OutputPath, AssemblyName, TargetFramework, etc. (dotnet-watch, dotnet-ef, dotnet-xunit to name a few)

Only a few of them need to edit a csproj. And there are simple solutions for this. For example, a CLI tool might simply print a message that says “Please add <xml here> to your csproj”.

[WeihanLi]

Any update on this?