VS2010 Web Deploy only leave extra files with specific extension

I'm deploying my ASP.NET-MVC3 application to an IIS7 server.

Publishing to web works fine if I check "Leave extra files on destination (do not delete)".

If the checkbox is not checked, it usually fails with this error:

Error 65 Web deployment task failed.((2013.07.10. 17:06:09) An error occurred when the request was processed on the remote computer.)

(2013.07.10. 17:06:09) An error occurred when the request was processed on the remote computer.

An error was encountered when processing operation 'Delete File' on 'App_tracelog.svclog'.

The error code was 0x80070020.

The process cannot access 'D:\WebSites\app\Admin\App_tracelog.svclog' because it is being used by another process. 0 0 AdminApp

Clearly the tracelog cannot be deleted as it is currently written by the application.

I don't want to leave all files on the server on the deploy, so I first thought that switching my application off, deploy, and switching it on would be a good solution. It works, but I haven't been able to do it automatically (on pressing publish). (Is there a way?)

I later realized, that deleting the tracelog is bad practice. The log should be preserved, it is there so I can later access and read it.

I want to delete nearly everything from the folder I deploy to, except my logs, and some of my backed up files. Is there a way to to force the deploy to automatically clean that folder from files except a few (with the extension .tracelog, .bak, .log, etc)?

You can do so in the following manner:

• create YourWebProjectName.wpp.targets file next to you the project file with the following content:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <MsDeploySkipRules Include="SkipXMLFiles">
    <SkipAction></SkipAction>
    <ObjectName>filePath</ObjectName>
    <AbsolutePath>$(_DestinationContentPath)\\*.xml</AbsolutePath>
    <Apply>Destination</Apply>
    <XPath></XPath>
  </MsDeploySkipRules>
  </Project>
  

Change YourWebProjectName accordingly.

You can have a look at this answer for more details on how to to have a more grained control on which folders/files get deleted/synchronised.

NB: VisualStudio tends to cache wpp.targets files so if you use VS to esecute your publish, I suggest you to restart VS after you modify them.