Symptoms

When running an MSBuild task, bamboo  removes the quotes around the property value which cause the build to fail. As mentioned in a Microsoft document regarding this error: MSBuild Error MSB1006 because semicolons are used as a property separator, the remaining part after quotes are removed will be an invalid expression.

Example 1:

/t:Release /p:BuildVersion="1.0.0.${bamboo.buildNumber}" 
/p:ProductsToRelease="JIRA;Bamboo;Fisheye"

If quotes are not deleted, all the three options are considered as values of the property ProductsToRelease.

Example 2:

/p:Configuration="Any CPU";Platform=x64;...

Following is the error that shows up when running the build:

MSBUILD : error MSB1006: Property is not valid.

Solution

Upgrade

This problem was fixed in Bamboo 5.8. If possible upgrade to this version or a newer one.

If an upgrade is not possible then a possible workaround is presented below:

Workaround

The possible workarounds for versions of Bamboo before version 5.8 are:

1. use single quotes to quote the quotes to preserver your parameters. Instead of:

   /p:ProductsToRelease="JIRA;Bamboo;Fisheye"

   Use:

   /p:ProductsToRelease='"'JIRA;Bamboo;Fisheye'"'

2. Place all the options as a single line in a msbuild.rsp file in the directory that the build solution or project resides then running the MSBuild task with empty options.