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This article describes the MSB4232 error code.
Message text
MSB4232: Items that are outside Target elements must have one of the following operations: Include, Update, or Remove.
Description
MSBuild items are lists whose contents are determined by the use of the attributes Include (add specific items to the list), Exclude (don't add certain items), Update (update item metadata), and Remove (remove one or more items from the list). See MSBuild items.
MSBuild items outside of targets are expected to be defined and populated; therefore at least one of Include, Update, or Remove is expected to be used. However, inside of a target, items are expected to be already defined and populated, so it's not an error to omit these attributes within a target. In a target, when neither Include nor Remove is specified, MSBuild performs an update operation.
Resolution
Check the item declaration and determine the correct logic for it. Look at the places in your project file where the item is first defined and populated, and verify correctness. If the intention is to work with an item that's defined previously, consider placing the operation on that item inside a target. Inside a target, if you don't specify Include or Remove, the operation is assumed to be an update.
To get more information, enable verbose diagnostics (use -v:diag at the MSBuild command line, or set the verbosity level in Visual Studio in Tools, Options, Projects and Solutions, Build and Run), or enable the binary logger (-bl) and use the MSBuild structured log viewer.
Applies to
All versions of MSBuild