Copy file before build in .net core

scenario: before build a C# .net core project, copy the appsetting.development.json.sample to appsetting.development.json if the latter doesn't exist.

In Visual Studio, we can easily add a Build Event: 

IF $(ConfigurationName) == Debug ( 
IF NOT EXIST $(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json copy $(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json.sample $(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json
)

but the build will fail in Azure Devops if a linux build agent is picked, because copy is not a linux command.

solution: ms build provides a copy task, which is cross-platform Copy Task - MSBuild | Microsoft Docs

for the above task, add the following  to .csproj file

<Target Name="CopyAppSettingsDev" BeforeTargets="Build" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' and !Exists('$(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json')">
        <Copy
          SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json.sample"
          DestinationFiles="$(ProjectDir)appsettings.Development.json"
        />
    </Target>