"dotnet restore" and "dotnet publish" use relative BaseIntermediateOutputPath even if it's set to absolute path

[MasterMann]

Describe the bug

"dotnet restore" and "dotnet publish" use relative BaseIntermediateOutputPath even if it's set to absolute path (or $(SolutionDir) gets lost in the process somewhere).
It's possible that --artifacts-path is ignored as well. I have tried setting it explicitly, as well as /p:ArtifactsPath and <ArtifactsPath>...</ArtifactsPath> in Directory.Build.props, but same result.

To Reproduce

1. Create an empty solution
2. Add a .NET 8 GUI app project to it (into a subdirectory, i.e. src/<project-name>/)
3. Add a Directory.Build.props to the root solution directory with the following contents:

<Project>
	<PropertyGroup>
		<NoWarn>1701;1702;2087;2091</NoWarn>
		<CodeAnalysisTreatWarningsAsErrors>false</CodeAnalysisTreatWarningsAsErrors>
		<SatelliteResourceLanguages>en-US</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
		<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
		<AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>false</AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>
		<BaseIntermediateOutputPath>$(SolutionDir)build\intermediate\$(MSBuildProjectName)\</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
		<OutDir>$(SolutionDir)build\staging\bin\$(MSBuildProjectName)\$(Configuration)-$(Platform)\</OutDir>
	</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

4. Add this to the .csproj of the created project:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

	<PropertyGroup>
		<!--- ... -->

		<OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
		<AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>

		<PublishAot>false</PublishAot>
		<RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
		<SelfContained>true</SelfContained>
		<PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
		<PublishTrimmed>true</PublishTrimmed>
		<PublishReadyToRun>true</PublishReadyToRun>
		<IsTransformWebConfigDisabled>true</IsTransformWebConfigDisabled>
		<EnableDefaultContentItems>false</EnableDefaultContentItems>
		<CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>false</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>

		<RegisterForCOMInterop>false</RegisterForCOMInterop>
		<NoVBRuntimeReference>true</NoVBRuntimeReference>
		<EnableCompressionInSingleFile>true</EnableCompressionInSingleFile>
	</PropertyGroup>

	<Target Name="PostBuild" AfterTargets="PostBuildEvent">
		<Exec Command="echo ProjectDir: $(ProjectDir)" />
		<Exec Command="echo BaseIntermediateOutputPath: $(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" />
		<Exec Command="dotnet restore $(ProjectDir)$(MSBuildProjectName).csproj -r $(RuntimeIdentifier) --disable-build-servers" />
		<Exec Command="dotnet publish $(ProjectDir)$(MSBuildProjectName).csproj -r $(RuntimeIdentifier) -c $(Configuration) --disable-build-servers --no-restore -o $(SolutionDir)build\out\$(MSBuildProjectName)\$(Configuration)-$(Platform)\win\" />
	</Target>

</Project>

5. Run project build via Visual Studio
6. The intermediate files (and directories) will be created in the project directory and not in BaseIntermediateOutputPath ($(SolutionDir)build\intermediate\$(MSBuildProjectName)\), though the hirerarchy will match except for $(SolutionDir) (almost as if it's ignored/evaluated to "")
7. The dotnet publish command will later fail with Root assembly 'build\intermediate\<project-name>\<configuration>\<project-name>.dll' could not be found

Exceptions (if any)

Not exceptions, but errors during publishing (see build log below).

Further technical details

• dotnet --info:

.NET SDK:
 Version:           9.0.102
 Commit:            cb83cd4923
 Workload version:  9.0.100-manifests.4a54b1a6
 MSBuild version:   17.12.18+ed8c6aec5

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.22631
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\9.0.102\

.NET workloads installed:
 [wasm-tools]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35707.178
   Manifest Version:    9.0.1/9.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\9.0.100\microsoft.net.workload.mono.toolchain.current\9.0.1\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

 [android]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35707.178
   Manifest Version:    35.0.7/9.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\9.0.100\microsoft.net.sdk.android\35.0.7\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

 [ios]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35707.178
   Manifest Version:    18.1.9163/9.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\9.0.100\microsoft.net.sdk.ios\18.1.9163\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

 [maui-windows]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35707.178
   Manifest Version:    9.0.14/9.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\9.0.100\microsoft.net.sdk.maui\9.0.14\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

 [maccatalyst]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35707.178
   Manifest Version:    18.1.9163/9.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\9.0.100\microsoft.net.sdk.maccatalyst\18.1.9163\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

Configured to use loose manifests when installing new manifests.

Host:
  Version:      9.0.1
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       c8acea2262

.NET SDKs installed:
  9.0.102 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Other architectures found:
  x86   [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet]
    registered at [HKLM\SOFTWARE\dotnet\Setup\InstalledVersions\x86\InstallLocation]

Environment variables:
  Not set

global.json file:
  Not found

• IDE: Visual Studio 2022 (17.12.4)

• Build log with errors:

1>------ Build started: Project: <project-name>, Configuration: <configuration> x64 ------
1><project-name> -> <solution root>\build\staging\bin\<project-name>\<configuration>-x64\<project-name>.dll
1>ProjectDir: <solution root>\src\<project-name>\
1>BaseIntermediateOutputPath: <solution root>\build\intermediate\<project-name>\
1>  Determining projects to restore...
1>  Restored <solution root>\src\<project-name>\<project-name>.csproj (in 199 ms).
1>  Optimizing assemblies for size. This process might take a while.
1>ILLink : error IL1032: Root assembly 'build\intermediate\<project-name>\<configuration>\<project-name>.dll' could not be found. [<solution root>\src\<project-name>\<project-name>.csproj]
1>E:\PackageCache\NuGet\microsoft.net.illink.tasks\8.0.12\build\Microsoft.NET.ILLink.targets(87,5): error NETSDK1144: Optimizing assemblies for size failed. [<solution root>\src\<project-name>\<project-name>.csproj]
1>
1>Workload updates are available. Run `dotnet workload list` for more information.
1><solution root>\src\Runtime\HostApp\Loader\<project-name>\<project-name>.csproj(37,3): error MSB3073: The command "dotnet publish <solution root>\src\<project-name>\<project-name>.csproj -r win-x64 -c Internal_LocalDev --disable-build-servers --no-build -o <solution root>\build\out\<project-name>\<configuration>-x64\win\" exited with code 1.
1>Done building project "<project-name>.csproj" -- FAILED.
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

• Intermediate files after dotnet restore ending up in project's directory instead of in BaseIntermediateOutputPath:

[edvilme]

Hello @MasterMann
I am unable to replicate the issue. My guess is it got picked by the MSBuild Issue you linked (dotnet/msbuild#2743). I tried reproducing using the 9.0.103 SDK
Can you confirm if the issue persists after updating? Thanks!

[MasterMann]

@edvilme to clarify, the issue ocurrs when doing a restore against a single project in a solution (either in the project SRC directory, or explicitly pointing to the .csproj).
The workaround for me, at least for now, is to explicitly set SolutionDir (/p:SolutionDir=<...>), though I'm planning to re-work my build workflow soon and use the Publish MSBuild task directly instead.

[edvilme]

Oh sorry for the confusion @MasterMann
In that case it seems like the $(SolutionDir) variable is not present unless it is a solution being built, which makes sense as otherwise how would it know what to resolve to.

This is most likely an MSBuild issue, but I would suggest maybe using another MSBuild Property such as MSBuildStartupDirectory, passing the property directly, or building through a solution (.sln(x)) file.