IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract includes XML and other files into output binary

Description

I’m building a command line tool and want a single executable. Since PublishSingleFile does not publish a single file (seriously…), I found on the web that the additional IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract property is required.

The project has 4 data files in a data folder with property CopyToOutputDirectory set to PreserveNewest.

Issue

The problem is that after publishing (dotnet publish -c Release) half of the data are missing in the data folder. In addition, at least one of those file is (the XML one) is actually included in the executable binary instead of being outputted to the file system.

Step to reproduce

1. Clone the following repository: https://github.com/titanix/BonetCLI
2. Use the following project file instead of the one in the repository:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>disable</Nullable>

    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
    <SelfContained>true</SelfContained>
    <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
    <PublishTrimmed>true</PublishTrimmed>
    <PublishReadyToRun>true</PublishReadyToRun>
    <IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>true</IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="HyperGraph.Core" Version="3.4.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="HyperGraph.Extras" Version="3.4.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Update="data\ids.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="data\ids.xml">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="data\wiki.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="data\bonet.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

1. Publish the project (dotnet publish)
2. You can see that ids.txt and ids.xml are missing from the data folder. Looking at the binary content with an hex editor shows that the XML file is included in the executable. While I’m not sure if ids.txt is included as well, the binary contains the following two strings: data/ids.txt and data/ids.xml and it’s missing from the data folder, so I guess it included as well in the binary.

Configuration

Dotnet 5.0.302

Windows 11 (10.0.22000 Build 22000)

x64

[ALIENQuake]

@titanix FWIW, the problem is gone when using net8.0.

[VSadov]

@titanix - Sure, and thanks for reporting the issue!!
The workaround is just to make sure you are not blocked while the bug is being investigated/fixed.