Unable to specify project of solution for MSBuild - visual-studio

I have the following solution:
MySolution\
MySolution.sln
MyCSProject\
MyCSProject.csproj
MyCPPProject\
VC11\
projfile.vcxproj
VC8
projfile.vcproj
MyInstallationProject
MyInstallationPackage.vdproj
In Visual Studio I have MyCSProject set as main project. But for automated build I need to build MyInstallationProject with dependencies. MyInstallationProject depends on MyCSProject and MyCSProject depends on MyCPPProject. If I build from Visual Studio, it works.
But for MSBuild I can't compose correct command. Neither of the following worked:
"...\MSBuild.exe" MySolution.sln /t:MySolution\MyInstallationProject /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64"
"...\MSBuild.exe" MySolution.sln /t:MySolution\MyInstallationProject.vdproj /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64"
"...\MSBuild.exe" MySolution.sln /t:MyInstallationProject /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64"
"...\MSBuild.exe" MyInstallationProject\MyInstallationProject.vdproj /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64"
and so on, with various errors, mainly "The target *** does not exist in the project"
How to know correct command and or the name of target, associated with the project?

In fact, one of the third and the fourth msbuild command line should have worked in your side. Also, there is a document about it.
The truth is that MSBuild cannot build the vdproj file. It is from VS installer project extension and the build tool is a separate tool from the extension rather than in the MSBuild. You can easily open the vdproj file and could find that it is not a xml style.
MSBuild can only build the xml sytle proj file.
To test it, you could try the same msbuild command line for MyCSProject project to get the difference.
So the right way is to use VS IDE build or use devenv build command line which means you have to you have VS IDE on your local.
Try the following command line:
1) open Developer Command Prompt for VS:
2) run:
cd xxx\xxx\MySolution
devenv MyInstallationProject\MyInstallationProject.vdproj /build

Related

MSBuild error MSB4057 after updating to VS 2019 16.10.0

The command below worked flawlessly before updating to VS 2019 16.10.0:
msbuild.exe MySolution.sln /t:Project1;Project2;Project3 /p:Configuration=Release /p:DebugType=None /p:OutputPath="C:\Users\myuser\Desktop\Build"
After the update I'm getting the message error MSB4057: the target "Project1" does not exist in the project when I try the command in Developer Command Prompt of VS 2019.
Until Microsoft releases an update we found that you can add :Rebuild to the end of your projects and that fixed it for us.
msbuild.exe MySolution.sln /t:Project1:Rebuild;Project2:Rebuild;Project3:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:DebugType=None /p:OutputPath="C:\Users\myuser\Desktop\Build"
As an alternative if you like to avoid the rebuild suggested by the accepted answer:
Add a custom target to the project files like <Target Name="MyBuild" DependsOnTargets="Build" />
Call this target from the script, e.g. msbuild.exe MySolution.sln /t:Project1:MyBuild;Project2:MyBuild;Project3:MyBuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:DebugType=None /p:OutputPath="C:\Users\myuser\Desktop\Build"

Configuration file differences between building with Visual Studio and the MSBuild command-line tool

I have a solution that contains a project with AutoGenerateBindingRedirects set to "true". When I build it via Visual Studio 2013, the .config file in the output directory contains an generated assembly binding redirect for EntityFramework, and the project runs. However, on the build server, which calls MSBuild, this property is not followed, which causes the project to fail to start. Does anyone have any idea on why there might be differences in the build results between the two methods?
For reference, the build server is executing a command like
MSBuild MySolution.sln /p:Configuration=Release,DefineConstants="SOMETHING" /t:Rebuild /tv:4.0
I get the same results when invoking this on my development machine, too, so it seems to be a peculiarity with MSBuild and/or Visual Studio. I've tried variations like
MSBuild MySolution.sln /p:Configuration=Release,DefineConstants="SOMETHING",AutoGenerateBindingRedirects=true /t:Rebuild /tv:4.0
to no avail.

error MSB4057: The target "v8" does not exist in the project

I'm trying to build V8 as part of ArangoDB using the official build scripts and following the official Windows build instructions.
The compilation fails for all v8* targets (v8-build.bat):
msbuild All.sln /t:v8 /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
msbuild All.sln /t:v8_libbase /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
msbuild All.sln /t:v8_libplatform /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
error MSB4057: The target "v8" does not exist in the project.
If I open the solution file in Visual Studio, it looks like this:
I can build v8, v8_libbase and v8_libplatform just fine in VS.
Windows 7 64bit
Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate
Cygwin 2.2.0
cmake 3.3.1
You can run
set MSBuildEmitSolution=1
msbuild All.sln /t:v8
Then search in the generated All.sln.metaproj file the exact target names (<Target Name="">) of all projects you want to build. v8 can have a name like _tools_\_gyp_\v8. After that you can build projects
msbuild All.sln /t:"_tools_\_gyp_\v8" /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
The correct way to specify a target/project if it's in a solution folder is:
msbuild all.sln /t:PATH\TO\PROJECT
But in case of (tools) and (gyp) it's simply not possible, because msbuild can't handle parentheses in the target parameter /t.
So either remove ( ) and specify the path like tools\gyp\v8, or get rid of the solution folders entirely. If the solution is flat, /t:v8 will work.
Unfortunately, both the wrapping of folder names with brackets as well as the generation of non-flat .sln are hardcoded in gyp, which generated my all.sln. There is no switch to control whether solution folders are created or not. It will create them if the target version of Visual Studio is known to support this kind of nesting.
Workaround: Force flat solution generation in gyp, see
https://github.com/arangodb/arangodb/commit/796d2d263db6271142d954c8c99b9dec0fbe75e9
Reported errors to Microsoft/msbuild and Google/gyp:
https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/issues/157
https://code.google.com/p/gyp/issues/detail?id=494
#dothebart and this post helped me a lot to figure it out, thank you!
In VS2013 use
msbuild All.sln /p:Project=v8;Configuration=Release;Platform=x64

MSBuild: Cannot build Visual Studio 2008 project with spaces in solution

Found online the way to use MSBuild to build a Visual Studio 2008 project within a solution, using the following syntax:
msbuild Solution.sln /t:"ProjectName:Rebuild"
However my project name contains a space, so I've tried:
msbuild Solution.sln /t:"Project Two:Rebuild"
msbuild Solution.sln /t:"Project Two":Rebuild
msbuild Solution.sln /t:""Project Two":Rebuild"
msbuild Solution.sln /t:"Project Two" /t:Rebuild
It definitely has to do with quotes. Either it takes the Rebuild as part of the project name and fails, complains about syntax, or if Rebuild is separated out it rebuilds the entire solution as a separate target. If I just remove the Rebuild target from the command it works fine.
msbuild Solution.sln /t:"Project Two"
But that means I cannot select Build or Rebuild in my script, I have to live with the default.
Is there a way?
Thanks

Under vs10 msbuild.exe how can a specific project within a solution.sln be Ignored?

Under vs10 msbuild.exe how can a specific project within a solution.sln be Ignored?
I am building a large project that is moving to Visual Studio 10.0. In the IDE I can uncheck a project within the configuration manager and it will not build it. I need to mimic that behavior with a command line call to msbuild.exe.
The project I want to bypass is an *.dll plugin with a link error. I am stuck on stupid with the link error at the moment and since it stands alone, I can run the main program with out it and just live with a warning at run time that it isn't present.
I need some switch magic concerning calls to msbuild.exe.
If you have a certain configuration in the sln (configured in VS Configuration Manager) that you want to build with MSBuild, you can do so with the following command line:
msbuild /p:Configuration=MyConfiguration MySolution.sln

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