A more convenient way to see project dependencies? - visual-studio

Question

VS has the "Project Dependencies" window but in a solution I work on there are over 100 projects. Trying to see all the dependencies of a specific project is time-consuming as you have to scroll through the entire list, and it's easy to miss one.
Is there a way just to list the dependencies, not all the projects with a tick-box showing which are dependencies?

Answer 1

You may open a Visual Studio Solution file (.sln) in a text editor, for example, Notepad++. Once opened, search for ProjectSection(ProjectDependencies) = postProject within the specific project you are looking for.
The example of part of a .sln file below shows that the NativeUnitTest_CppDll project depends on NativeWin32CppDll project.
The only downside is that the dependencies are listed as GUIDs. You will have to do a text Find to locate their project names.
Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "NativeWin32CppDll", "NativeWin32CppDll\NativeWin32CppDll.vcxproj", "{83FC3109-17DF-4B53-BCA0-F0DFC10AAE7F}"
EndProject
Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "NativeUnitTest_CppDll", "NativeUnitTest_CppDll\NativeUnitTest_CppDll.vcxproj", "{559CB21A-4763-4A1E-A70A-E8C656C53ED9}"
ProjectSection(ProjectDependencies) = postProject
{83FC3109-17DF-4B53-BCA0-F0DFC10AAE7F} = {83FC3109-17DF-4B53-BCA0-F0DFC10AAE7F}
EndProjectSection
EndProject

Answer 2

Could you please clarify: to see and list where? In the Visual Studio or some external tool? Just to see in a pop-up or to have an ability to copy the list?
I was trying to get those dependencies using Visual Studio's Solution object and its properties. There is a property named ProjectDependencies, but it was empty on my test, so I assume it is tracking auto-dependencies, not the one you specify manually.
Then I tried to get the list out of *.sln file, as was also suggested by gxy, in a simple console project (you should pass the solution file on a command line):
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
if (argc != 2)
return -1;
ifstream sln(argv[1]);
string line, name, guid;
unordered_map<string, string> names;
unordered_map<string, list<string>> dependencies;
while (getline(sln, line))
{
if (line.find("Project(") == 0)
{
ParseProjGuid(line, name, guid);
names[guid] = name;
while (getline(sln, line))
{
if (line == "EndProject")
break;
if (line.find("ProjectSection(ProjectDependencies)") != string::npos)
{
while (getline(sln, line))
{
if (line.find("EndProjectSection") != string::npos)
break;
ParseDependGuid(line, guid);
dependencies[name].push_back(guid);
}
}
}
}
}
for (auto d : dependencies)
{
cout << d.first << endl;
for (auto g : d.second)
cout << "\t" << names[g] << endl;
}
return 0;
}
I am using a couple of helper functions there:
string unquote(const string& s)
{
if (s[0] == '"' && s[s.length() - 1] == '"')
return s.substr(1, s.length() - 2);
else
return s;
}
void ParseProjGuid(const string& src, string& proj, string& guid)
{
// Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "name", "path\name.vcxproj", "{9D4B97C3-1069-406C-973F-652706414C86}"
size_t pos1 = src.find('=');
size_t pos2 = src.find(',');
size_t pos3 = src.rfind(',');
proj = src.substr(pos1 + 1, pos2 - pos1 - 1);
guid = src.substr(pos3 + 1);
proj = trim(proj);
guid = trim(guid);
proj = unquote(proj);
guid = unquote(guid);
}
void ParseDependGuid(const string& src, string& guid)
{
// {165C1503-36B1-4577-9D99-3C1AFEBFC201} = {165C1503-36B1-4577-9D99-3C1AFEBFC201}
size_t pos = src.find('=');
guid = src.substr(0, pos);
guid = trim(guid);
}
As well as trim function borrowed from from What's the best way to trim std::string?:
// trim from start
static inline string &ltrim(string &s) {
s.erase(s.begin(), find_if(s.begin(), s.end(), std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))));
return s;
}
// trim from end
static inline string &rtrim(string &s) {
s.erase(std::find_if(s.rbegin(), s.rend(), std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))).base(), s.end());
return s;
}
// trim from both ends
static inline string &trim(string &s) {
return ltrim(rtrim(s));
}
As my hobby is writing Visual Studio extensions, I have a question: do you think it will be a useful tool?