I want to create a configuration for a Visual Studio projectfrom command line in order to automate my release process. Typically you would go into Visual Studio, create a new configuration, select in the dropdown menu which build to copy from (in my case, this would be Release) and select the platforms. I want to do the same from command line.
I have tried the following:
MSBuild <mysolution>.sln -p:Configuration=<newconfigname>
But I get MSB4126 error, telling me that the configuration is not valid. I have also read the documentation on MSBuild, but it does not say anything about this. I am not even sure that this can be achieved using MSBuild. I am using Wix Installer in order to compile a .msi, and that works flawlessly, but it's building the Release configuration, instead of the one I want to build (custom release).
Can anyone shed some light on this issue?
I solved it by modifying some files.
You need to modify your .sln file to add your release type:
NewRelease|Any CPU = NewRelease|Any CPU
NewRelease|ARM = NewRelease|ARM
NewRelease|x64 = NewRelease|x64
NewRelease|x86 = NewRelease|x86
If you have submodules, add them as well. Create a new configuration in Visual Studio if you have doubts of what you need to add, and copy-paste from the configuration you created with Visual Studio, changing just the name of the configuration where needed.
You need to modify your .csproj file of the main project (not the WixInstaller one), for example:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'NewRelease|AnyCPU'">
<OutputPath>bin\NewRelease\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
<Optimize>true</Optimize>
<DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
<PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>MinimumRecommendedRules.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
<Prefer32Bit>true</Prefer32Bit>
</PropertyGroup>
And, then again, if you have submodules, you have to modify every .csproj file to include your new release (copy from the other releases).
Finally, compile it with:
MSBuild <yourmainproject>.csproj -p:Configuration=NewRelease.
Related
I'm trying to share an internal company assembly via NuGet packages and a private source. This assembly targets .NET Framework 4.6.1. I want these NuGet packages to pack automatically from Visual Studio during the release build. I see I can add <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild> to .csproj. I'm not sure if this is a .NET Standard-specific property but it seems to partially work. However, when I build, I get
error MSB4044: The "GetPackOutputItemsTask" task was not given a value for the required parameter "PackageOutputPath".
I've been trying to learn how to pass this parameter from within Visual Studio but I don't see a lot of documentation on parameters except when calling it from the command line manually. Is there an easy way to do this from within Visual Studio? Am I going about this wrong?
Edit: This is using a .NET Framework class library. I can run the pack command from the command line giving it the required parameters with /p:PackageOutputPath="path\here". It seems this might have been designed for .NET Core and Standard projects and Visual Studio might not handle packing .NET Framework projects.
To enable on-build packing in a "non SDK" project, using old .NET framework (eg:. 4.5.1) and visual studio 2019 without using custom Target. you need to do the following step:
add a first PropertyGroup tag on the csproj
add minimal tags Authors and PackageOutputPath
check that the same PropertyGroup has GeneratePackageOnBuild
Now the variables will be passed to the internally triggered msbuild -t:Pack command.
Here an example of working configuration, please make sure this will be the first <PropertyGroup> of the .csproj:
<PropertyGroup>
<Title>packageid</Title>
<Description>your description</Description>
<Version>1.1.1</Version>
<ReleaseNotes>New package system</ReleaseNotes>
<Authors>authors</Authors>
<Owners>owners</Owners>
<Copyright>your copyrights</Copyright>
<PackageOutputPath>bin\Package</PackageOutputPath>
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
If you are looking for the references, here:
how to create a nuget package with msbuild
all possible tags to set on the csproj on the first PropertyGroup
Am I going about this wrong?
This GeneratePackageOnBuild property is not something for .net framework projects. Create a new .net Standard or .net Core class library project, right-click the project you'll see a Pack command(not available for .net framework).
If we click the button, VS will pack that assembly into a nuget package. And if someone doesn't want to click that button every time manually, go Project=>Properties=>Package we can see the Generate Nuget Packages on build checkbox. Enable it, and then the nuget package will be created after every build.
Actually, enabling that checkbox in VS will add statement <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild> to xx.csproj, but the Pack button or Package tab in Project=>Properties are not available for .net framework projects.
So I'm afraid the answer is negative, you should't use that property for .net framework projects.(I tested the property in VS2017 and VS2019, it all just did nothing, can't reproduce the partial work mentioned in your question)
Is there an easy way to do this from within Visual Studio?
You need to use nuget pack command to do that as Lex Li says. And to do this in VS automatically, you can consider configuring that command in Post-Build-Event or using custom after-build target to run that command.
Since you want these NuGet packages to pack automatically from Visual Studio during the release build. You can try adding this script into your xx.csproj file:
<Target Name="CustomPack" AfterTargets="build" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<Message Text="Custom Pack command starts ..." Importance="high"/>
<Exec Command="nuget pack $(MSBuildProjectFile) -Properties Configuration=Release"/>
</Target>
To run this script successfully, you need to download the nuget.exe and add the path of it to Environment Variables. Or use the full path like "C:\SomePath\Nuget.exe" pack ...
If the build in release mode succeeds, you'll see a xx.nupkg file in project folder.
In addition:
1.For more details about nuget pack command please see this document.
2.And don't forget to create a xx.nuspec file in project folder to avoid encountering warnings like NU5115(xxx was not specified). Similar issue see here.
I have a unique situation of needing to Register for Com Interop for and older application but also needing to pack for use in other internal applications and development in our company. I actually got this to work for a .NET Framework project from Visual Studio. Manually adding GeneratePackageOnBuild did attempt to make a package for me in VS2017. I was also able to add other .NET Core project properties such as <Authors>,<Description>, etc. I haven't tried VS2019 yet so maybe that is more restricted but I hope not.
The issue is VS2017 doesn't feed the pack target the output parameter (in this type of project). So then I tried to call pack in the After Build events but that causes a recursive loop because packing also attempts to build (dotnet and nuget both seem to call the msbuild pack target which calls a build). I then found an option -p:NoBuild=true for msbuild that allows me to call the pack target without msbuild actually building the project. Therefore I added the following command to <PostBuildEvent> and it works.
"$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild" -t:Pack "$(ProjectPath)" -p:PackageOutputPath="$(SolutionDir)..\packages" -p:NoBuild=true
Edit: I eventually used the following in my csproj. Calling nuget directly worked better because I had a nuspec file that was not getting merged or fully used when calling MSBuild directly.
<Target Name="CustomPack" AfterTargets="Build" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<Message Text="Custom Pack command starts ..." Importance="high" />
<Exec Command=""nuget" pack "$(ProjectPath)" -OutputDirectory "$(ProjectDir)..\..\packages" -Prop Configuration=Release" />
</Target>
Add this to your proj file to use the pack target on .net framework projects.
<PackageReference Include="NuGet.Build.Tasks.Pack" Version="6.4.0">
<PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
<IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>
if you want to run from command line then use this:
msbuild -t:restore
Background: I have several solutions with roughly 300 C++ projects across them, most of them shared. We are using Visual Studio 2013 and have a build script that compiles all of the projects in the correct order, ensuring dependencies are resolved ahead of time. Our development/engineering team builds all of the code through the build script and then attempts to debug using Visual Studio 2013.
Issue: The "build then debug" process results in Visual Studio telling us that the Projects are out of date. This stems from the ProjectEvaluationFingerprint property (in Line 39 Microsoft.CppBuild.targets) including a $(SolutionDir) in the output file. The recommended fix from Microsoft suggests removing the $(SolutionDir) from the file. As our developers tends to transition back and forth between projects, I do not want to manually change this .targets file on every developer's machine (and remember to change it back when they leave the project). I would like to override the property in the .vcxproj by using a .targets file explicitly for this.
The property in Microsoft.CppBuild.targets looks like:
<!-- Global up-to-date check support -->
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>$(Configuration)|$(Platform)|$(SolutionDir)|$(ProjectEvaluationFingerprint)</ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>
</PropertyGroup>
Generally, I have been following Microsoft's How to: Use the Same Target in Multiple Project Files. I have created a .targets file (test.targets) that contains the following code (note the TEST text was to test evaluation of the property in both the build script and building the project in Visual Studio):
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>$(Configuration)|$(Platform)|TEST|$(ProjectEvaluationFingerprint)</ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>
</PropertyGroup>
I then import it using the following line in the .vcxproj
<Import Project="..\..\Config\VSPropertySheets\test.targets" />
The project.lastbuildstate file now reads:
#TargetFrameworkVersion=v4.0:PlatformToolSet=v120_xp:EnableManagedIncrementalBuild=false:VCToolArchitecture=Native32Bit
Debug|Win32|D:\views\devbranch\Products\SLN\|Debug|Win32|TEST|
It is appending the new ProjectEvaluationFingerprint to the existing one, so it is not overriding (I can understand this to a degree, but I'm no MSBuild expert).
Question: How can I override this one property using a .targets file? Do I need to use a replaceregexp task or do I have an easier option?
You can override this property, but you have to be careful about two things:
the new setting you want is this:
<ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>$(Configuration)|$(Platform)|TEST/ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>
Note the removal of $(ProjectEvaluationFingerprint), which would contain the previous value of this tag
the location where you put the import is important: you will want to put it at the very end of your project (i.e. after the Microsoft.CppBuild.targets import).
Concretely:
use_custom_fingerprint.targets
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>$(Configuration)|$(Platform)</ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
project.vcxproj
<Project ...>
...
<Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.targets" />
<ImportGroup Label="ExtensionTargets">
</ImportGroup>
<Import Project="use_custom_fingerprint.targets" />
</Project>
Note that I also tried the extension .props and this worked just the same.
Note: The new import after importing Microsoft.CppBuild.targets.$(Platform).user.props is not sufficient, it must be after Microsoft.CppBuild.targets.
Disclaimer: tried in Visual Studio 2015
I have the same problem. I was able to progress a step further than you, but I still haven't a full solution.
The reason why you have now the old fingerprint appended to the new one without solution dir is your line
<ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>$(Configuration)|$(Platform)|TEST|$(ProjectEvaluationFingerprint)</ProjectEvaluationFingerprint>
The
$(ProjectEvaluationFingerprint)
Holds the old fingerprint, so just remove this part from the value for ProjectEvaluationFingerprint and your lastbuildstate will have the desired value.
Sadly now (at least for me) Visual Studio always thinks the fingerprint is wrong and will re-link the project with every compile, not only when switching sln file.
I removed the line from the props sheet and the up-to-date check works again as expected as long as solution directory doesn't change. I then modified the Microsoft.CppBuild.targets directly and this works: No more "not up-to-date" projects, even when switching solution directory.
I'm trying to add some simple MSBuild tasks to a Visual Studio project (VS 2012 Express) - specifically, to create a subdirectory then copy some files to a subdirectory of the output directory ready for packaging.
I see that VS supports custom build steps, which are command-line invocations. However, since VS is based on MSBuild it should be possible to add these directly as MSBuild tasks like the Copy Task in the AfterBuild pre-defined target.
What I can't find is any way to actually add such tasks within the framework of Visual Studio. The documentation only talks about it from an MSBuild perspective, not how it works within Visual Studio's UI. It also doesn't seem to discuss the properties that refer to build output etc there; presumably they're just those used by msbuild its self.
Is there support for MSBuild task management in Visual Studio's UI and it's just crippled out of my Express edition? Or do I have to go hack the project file XML to add MSBuild tasks? Is that supported and the way it's supposed to be done?
I'm used to working with Eclipse and Ant or Maven, where all this is supported within the IDE, though of course you can hack the XML directly. Finding no UI at all for MSBuild task management in Visual Studio is quite confusing. Am I missing the obvious or crippled by using the freebie edition?
For C++ projects, you can use the property
<CppCleanDependsOn>DeleteOutputs;$(CppCleanDependsOn)</CppCleanDependsOn>
instead of defining the BeforeClean target like you did.
From what I read, CallTarget is to be avoided. In your example, you should use DependsOnTargets to do that, as you see in many dummy targets in the MS supplied files. The analogous mechanism of a function where a target just "calls" other targets is done with DependsOnTargets. The flow is not really the same as procedural programming.
Intellisense: I never use it. Is that true for conditional AdditionalIncludeDirectories in the props file only? Go ahead and edit the entry in the proj file where the IDE put it, if you edit the property in the IDE with just one configuration chosen.
(After a bunch more reading I found out how this works):
Visual Studio doesn't seem to expose advanced MSBuild project editing, even though modern vcxproj files are just MSBuild project files with a bunch of extra labeled properties and other entries for Visual Studio IDE specifics. So you have to hack the project XML.
To make it cleaner, only add one line to your actual vcxproj file - an include of a .targets file that contains the rest of your build customisations. e.g, just before the end of the project file, insert:
<Import Project="pg_sysdatetime.targets" />
</Build>
Now create your .targets file with the same structure as any other MSBuild project. Here's mine from the project I've been working on:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<!-- MSBuild extension targets for Visual Studio build -->
<PropertyGroup>
<DistDir>pg_sysdatetime_pg$(PGMAJORVERSION)-$(Configuration)-$(Platform)</DistDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<DocFiles Include="README.md;LICENSE"/>
<ExtensionSourceFiles Include="pg_sysdatetime--1.0.sql;pg_sysdatetime.control"/>
<ExtensionDll Include="$(TargetDir)\pg_sysdatetime.dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyOutputs">
<Message Text="Copying build product to $(DistDir)" Importance="high" />
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(DocFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DistDir)"
/>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(ExtensionDll)"
DestinationFolder="$(DistDir)\lib"
/>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(ExtensionSourceFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DistDir)\share\extension"
/>
</Target>
<Target Name="DeleteOutputs">
<Message Text="Deleting $(DistDir)" Importance="normal" />
<Delete Files="$(DistDir)"/>
</Target>
<!-- Attach to Visual Studio build hooks -->
<Target Name="BeforeClean">
<CallTarget Targets="DeleteOutputs"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<CallTarget Targets="CopyOutputs"/>
</Target>
</Project>
This can contain whatver MSBuild tasks you want, grouped into targets. It can also have property groups, item groups, and whatever else MSBuild supports.
To integrate into Visual Studio you add specially named targets that invoke what you want. Here you can see I've defined the BeforeClean and AfterBuild targets. You can get the supported targets from the VS integration docs.
Now, when I build or rebuild, a new directory containing the product DLL and a bunch of static files is automatically created, ready to zip up. If I wanted I could add the Nuget package for MSBuild Community Extensions and use the Zip task to bundle the whole thing into a zip file at the end too.
BTW, while you can define properties in your .targets files it's better to define them in property sheets instead. That way they're visible in the UI.
I'm using VS2010 Pro, and it doesn't expose the AfterBuild target, at least in C++ projects which is what I'm doing. As you see, it does have the "Events", which according to what I've read are for backward compatibility with converted projects from VSBuild. I agree, a MSBuild task rather than a command script is the way to go.
Forget the UI. It's made to support free editing of the XML files, and continue using the UI too as it respects what you had in there and uses labels for its own stuff so it can find it to update it.
But to keep it neat, you could use a property page; a stand-alone XML file with *.props name, and put what you want in it. Then add that props file to the projects using the UI. You won't hand-edit the project file that the UI is maintaining, and it won't touch the props file unless you go through the property manager view and open it explicitly.
Oh, I also recall seeing additional standard targets something like Package and Publish. Maybe those are not used on your project type, but you could use those entry points anyway.
I am attempting to overhaul my project's build processes. We have ~330 Visual C++ projects that we have upgraded in the last year from Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2013. I would like to take advantage of MSBuild to improve our build time over our very serial build scripts that we have now. I have completed a rough first pass and dropped the build times for a Release build from ~2 hours to ~20 minutes. In the process of doing this, I am consolidating a lot of common project settings into a .props file . In doing so, I have hit a stumbling block.
I wish to inherit the Platform Toolset from one VSProps file to all of the projects that include it. At the top of the new .props file I created, I put the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ImportGroup Label="PropertySheets" />
<PropertyGroup Label="Configuration">
<PlatformToolSet>v120</PlatformToolSet>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Label="UserMacros" />
I then removed the corresponding <PlatformToolSet>v120</PlatformToolset> from the individual project files.
Alas, things have started to go downhill. The projects (in Visual Studio 2013) now say in the Solution Explorer something like CoreGeometry (Visual Studio 2010) and the projects themselves seem to want to reference the v100 platform toolset. When I build, it then complains at me:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(362,5): warning MSB8003: Could not find WindowsSDKDir variable from the registry. TargetFrameworkVersion or PlatformToolset may be set to an invalid version number.
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(341,5): error MSB6006: "CL.exe" exited with code -1073741515.
The only way I have been able to work around this is to manually set the PlatformToolset on the .vcxproj themselves, which is not terrible, I just am a bit annoyed that every other property seems to inherit, but the PlatformToolset does not.
My question is thus:
Can I use a .props file to inherit a common PlatformToolSet into a .vcxproj that does not specify a platform toolset?
A second question: Should I even be messing with the Platform ToolSet in this manner or am I setting myself up at risk for a maintenance nightmare later?
It is very good practice to extract common settings to a separate .props file and <Import> that from all projects. I am doing the same with my projects, including configuring PlatformToolset property in .props file, and I have no problems building it this way.
Few points related to this:
There is nothing special about PlatformToolset property, or any other property for that matter. Configuring properties inside .props file is identical to setting it inside .vcxproj file directly (however see my point below about ordering). Of course, there are some built-in properties, which you cannot configure at all, but those are always read-only properties.
The only case where you would not be able to override a property, if it the property value is passed directly from command line for the build (e.g. msbuild mysolution.sln /p:Platform=x86 will have everything built with Platform property set to x86 and overrides in projects won't take effect).
There is a difference between msbuild engine interpreting your projects and Visual Studio showing settings for the project. In some cases you might find that after refactoring .vcxproj files some standard project configuration dialogs not showing information you configured in .props file. To alleviate this, make sure that your <Import> command for .props file is always able to locate the .props file, by setting absolute path to .props file. Second, ensure you specify Label attribute for the <PropertyGroup> element in your configuration file like it was specified in your .vcxproj file.
Finally, make sure your <Import> element is in the right place. Usually you want it to be the very first Import, before you import standard .targets and .props, like Microsoft.Cpp.defaults.props, etc. The reason is msbuild works by performing sequential scans through the statements, so order of instructions matter.
To make #3 and #4 easier, here is a trick to specify absolute path to the .props file. Assume that your solution name is MySolution.sln and custom props file is MyCustomProps.props, placed in the same directory where solution is:
<PropertyGroup>
<RootFolder>$([MSBuild]::GetDirectoryNameOfFileAbove($(MSBuildThisFileDirectory),MySolution.sln))</RootFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(RootFolder)\MyCustomProps.props" />
When I build my c# solution the .tt files will not create the .cs file outputs. But if I right click the .tt files one at a time in solution explorer and select "Run Custom Tool" the .cs is generated, so the build tool setting is correct. What do I do to get the overall solution build to force the custom tool to run on the .tt files?
Paul, you can also generate code at build time with TextTransform.exe or Elton Stoneman's MSBuild task. Just keep in mind that behavior of the built-in directives, like assembly and include is different when T4 runs in Visual Studio vs. the command-line host.
Answering my own question, they are supposed to be generated at design time as per this discussion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081227142303/http://www.olegsych.com/2008/02/t4-template-directive/
In Visual Studio 2017 (probably next versions too), you should add this in Pre-build event:
"$(DevEnvDir)TextTransform.exe" -out "$(ProjectDir)YourTemplate.cs" "$(ProjectDir)YourTemplate.tt"
p.s. The only solution that worked for me.
p.s.s. Change path to your template if it's located not in root project directory.
In Visual Studio 2013, I was able to get the .tt files to regenerate their targets by just adding these lines to the .csproj file:
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- Get the Visual Studio version – defaults to 10: -->
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<!-- Keep the next element all on one line: -->
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- To enable build tasks on your development computer, install Modeling SDK for Visual Studio. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40754 -->
<Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\TextTemplating\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets" />
<!-- Run the Transform task at the start of every build -->
<PropertyGroup>
<TransformOnBuild>true</TransformOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- Overwrite files that are read-only, for example because they are not checked out -->
<PropertyGroup>
<OverwriteReadOnlyOutputFiles>true</OverwriteReadOnlyOutputFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- Transform every template every time -->
<PropertyGroup>
<TransformOutOfDateOnly>false</TransformOutOfDateOnly>
</PropertyGroup>
However, for this to work, you'll need to have installed the Modeling SDK for Visual Studio. I found all of this information, along with a more complete description of the options available, on this page: Code Generation in a Build Process.