In a directory where source code resides, there are also Visual Studio related files, like *.user, *.vcxproj. And Debug and Release folders.
I would like to change project directory layout so it looks like this:
For example, the project is named ProjectX.
In the ProjectX main folder, there would be only two subfolders:
ProjectX/Source
ProjectX/Build
In ProjectX/Source there would be all source code files, but nothing else.
In ProjectX/Build there would be all Visual Studio-related files.
How can I do it?
To move the vcxproj into the build directory, move the vcxproj into the build directory.
To move your source files under a source directory, move your source files under a source directory.
After either or both of the above steps, you'll need to re-add the files to Visual Studio, but I'm sure you knew that. Visual Studio isn't psychic and can't guess where your files are if you move everything around.
The SDF file can be moved by asking Stack Overflow how to move the SDF file: How to change ipch path in Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2015 should not be creating .user files any more. Perhaps you're not fully updated?
At this point you have everything you wanted, even though it's weird. Except for portable projects, people aren't generally moving their vcxproj files. The vcxproj file is typically considered the root of the project, just like a makefile would be; under it is build and source.
Now let me give you advice. Don't do all of that. Do this instead:
Move your source files in a source directory. Now in Visual Studio, go to project properties and change Output Directory and Intermediate Directory to $(ProjectDir)Build\$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\
Now you have one Build directory instead of a Debug and Release directory. That means a lot to some people. It means more to people with more build configurations.
Related
I'm running VS Enterprise 2015. This infernal thing keeps wanting to add my solution's .vssscc file to version control. My .tfignore has this line:
*.vssscc
The other items in .tfignore are working fine, but for some reason this one is not. There are no other .tfignore files in the directory tree. Surely I'm overlooking something, but I'm pulling what's left of my hair out trying to figure out what. Any suggestions?
*.vssscc stands for Visual Studio Solution Source Control File
When a solution is added to source control, a corresponding .vssscc file is created. The text file contains connection information and an exclusion file list, similar to the project hint file. This file is temporary and exists only in the source control database.
As a rule of thumb, we'd recommend letting Visual Studio handle those files. It'll add to source control the files it needs and leave out those not needed.
.vssscc files also manage the solution bindings, so better to have them controlled (by VS) .
Also, visual studio can have problems with the source control bindings if the files it needs are not under source control.
I'm using a Makefile project in Visual Studio 2012 express just fine. However, regardless of the Build Command specified, Visual Studio always makes an 'obj' folder containing empty subfolders obj\Win32\Debug and obj\Win32\Release.
To reproduce the problem, simply create a "Visual C++ - General - Makefile Project" and use a DOS command like 'dir' in the Build Command Line. As soon as you build, the empty obj\Win32\Debug folder will show up.
I can simply skip these in my Mercurial ignore file but it'd be nice to find a fix. Anyone know how to make Visual Studio not generate these empty folders?
Found a trick: to set the intermediate output directory on an existing directory. I modified the project file by hand and added this:
<IntermediateOutputPath>$(ProjectDir)</IntermediateOutputPath>
inside the configuration PropertyGroup. I used the project directory, which obviously already exists. No more useless obj directory!
The obj folder represents VS' own metadata about your project for intellisense support and designer support (for WF/WPF apps). For the most part you can ignore the folder completely without issue.
On occasion though this data can become corrupt and cause VS to show invalid Intellisense options and the workflow/WPF designer can cause errors. Closing VS and deleting the obj folder will quickly resolve this though.
Is there any way to instruct Visual Studio 2010 to keep my .h files and .cpp files separate from the project files and databases that VS generates to manage the project? Specifically, I would like to have a set up where the project files are in the VS install folder and the source files are in a completely separate folder in my Dropbox, and monitored by git.
You can put the .cpp and .h files wherever you want. A project file just lists the locations of the source files. Create the .cpp and .h files where you want them, perhaps with Notepad, and then use "Add Existing File" to add them to the project. (Right-click on the project name in Solution Explorer and choose "Add Existing File".)
Source files are represented in the project file using relative paths, so if both the sources and the projects are on the same disk drive, the sources will be represented something like "..\..\..\..\MyFiles\work\SuperCalc\Input\parser.cpp". If they're on a different drive, then they'll use absolute paths like "D:\MyFiles\work\SuperCalc\Input\parser.cpp".
A detailed example of a source file and build file layout which uses this technique is presented in this StackOverflow response about organizing Visual C++ source files. You may find it helpful.
As an aside, if you really want to store your project files in the VS install folder, which is under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0", then you'll need to run VS in Administrator mode, because C:\Program Files is a protected directory.
Visual Studio projects assumes all files belonging to the project are situated in the same directory as the project file, or one underneath it.
For a particular project (in the non-Visual Studio sense) this is not what I want. I want to store the MSVC-specific files in another folder, because there might be other ways to build the application as well, for example with SCons. Also all the stuff MSVC splurts out clutters the source directory.
Example:
/source
/scons
/msvc <- here is where I want my MSVC-specific stuff
I can add the files, in Explorer, to the source directory manually, and then link them in Visual Studio with the project. It's not the end of the world, but it annoys me a bit that Visual Studio tries to dictate the folder structure of my project.
I was looking through the schemas for the project files but realized that this annoying assumption is in the IDE and not the format of the project files.
Do someone know a neater way to solve this than manually linking files to the project from the source directory?
I use this sometimes, pretty sure it's what you want:
make sure the Show All Files option is on in your solution explorer.
create a symlink that targets your source directory and put the link at the same level as your project, or even lower if you want finer control. The command is mklink /j target source
For the example project structure you show, you'd run mklink /msvc/source /source and in the project the source directory will show up as if it was in the project dir (well, actually it is). Additional bonus: adding new items through VS also automatically puts them in the right directory.
You can add files with links like this, they are searchable, view-able, but they do not checkout if you try to change them, also visual studio leaves the wildcards in place:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..\Database Schema\Views\*.sql">
<Link>Views\*.sql</Link>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
This goes inside the .proj file.
I have a visual studio solution that contains a project that builds a joystick handling library. Unfortunately, the output .lib file is placed in an unrelated folder on the drive. It is placed in another project. I noticed that $(TargetDir) is expanding to the unrelated project's path and not the current solutions path. How do I change this? I searched the visual studio project files for any matching path text and nothing turns up so I can't see how it is pointing to the wrong directory.
Ok, I screwed up. The project was pointing to the wrong directory (obviously) :-)