In my project, I am running an external tool to update some binary files. These files are included in the project as "content".
At the moment the tool is set to run during "pre-build event" in C# project properties. Unfortunately, this event is only executed if the project is out of date, which is not what I need.
I am working around this by always using "rebuild" instead of "build" on my project, but this is tedious and slow.
I need to execute this tool always, irrespective of whether a project is or is not up to date. Actually, even before MSBuild even determines whether the project is up-to-date, because the tool modifies some of the files included in the project, therefore affecting the up-to-date check result.
Is there a proper way to do it?
Here's the solution. Define this property in your project file:
<PropertyGroup>
<DisableFastUpToDateCheck>true</DisableFastUpToDateCheck>
</PropertyGroup>
PreBuildStep will then execute every time, regardless of whether the project is or isn't up to date.
It seems that Visual Studio is bypassing normal up-to-date checks of MSBuild and using some sort of custom check that is faster, but has a side effect of breaking customized build targets.
In project level, you have three options:
1) Pre-build action
<PropertyGroup>
<PreBuildEvent>notepad.exe Foo.txt</PreBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
2) normal BeforeBuild target
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="notepad.exe Foo.txt" />
</Target>
3) "attached" to "Build" target (like stijn suggested)
<Target Name="BeforeBuild2" BeforeTargets="Build">
<Exec Command="notepad.exe Foo.txt" />
</Target>
Actually this solution (in case of Build) will not work, because DependsOnTargets is executed BEFORE BeforeTargets. And exactly in DependsOnTargets the real (CoreBuild) sits :)
This is why they invented the 'BeforeBuild' target ;)
In both cases VS check if something is changes (files are up-to-date). Why do you even want to run external program if nothing was changed? If this program work on file (eg. "content") msbuild and VS should detect files as out-of-date and process building.
Unfortunately IDE (Visual Studio) has it's own method to deal with msbuild projects. The main mechanism is the same, but when it's came to determine what project build or not, or in which order... VS act totalny different.
You can use external tool and run "msbuild" against your solution or project. This will also compile "the proper way" and binaries will be not different, but you will have full capabilities and potentials of MsBuild
There is also one additional pre build event that was not discussed here. Usually code analyzers are using that to check if code analyzer was downloaded by NuGet.
So if you want to execute something before code analyzers you need to use that target.
You just need to add <Target/> node under <Project/> node in your .csproj file:
<Target Name="DownloadNugetPackages" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
<Exec Command="notepad.exe Foo.txt"/>
</Target>
PrepareForBuild event will run before pre build events.
None of these solutions worked for me using Visual Studio for Mac.
I want to run a bash script before building the project but since I'm using Xamarin, some things are getting out of whack. I tried all different types of targets and even tried the CustomCommands in the project options but still I would get issues around MSbuild just running automatically or not truly running before the build
You can run the PreBuild events in a separate project that compiles before your main project.
Create a new project and name it something like "PreBuildEvent"
Add your MSbuild targets/commands as shown above to this new PreBuildEvent.csproj file for each property group/build configuration
In the project where you originally to do the PreBuild work, add a reference to this new project.
This new project will build first, executing any PreBuild events, and once this project is built, it will kick off the build for your original project. This is because when you add a reference to a project, visual studio makes sure to build them in the correct order
The solution that works for me is to have another project (configuration Makefile) and set that project as a BuildDependancy.
This avoid modification of how the prebuild step runs, and could allow you to regenerate your binary files in isolation to the rest of your build process if required.
Related
Is it possible to use an external build system for VC++ 2013?
I want Visual Studio do nothing but build by invoking my build tools.
I am thinking about something like this:
Put all build command in batches.
Invoke a project-level build batch by right clicking the project and choose build.
Invoke the a solution-level build batch by right clicking the solution and choose build.
Is there some walk-through tutorial? I searched a lot but no luck.
ADD 1 - Some progress...
After briefly reading about the MSBuild process, I tried as below.
First, I edit the *.vcxproj project file. I change the DefaultTargets from Build to MyTarget.
<Project DefaultTargets="MyTarget" ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
Then I add a new target named MyTarget:
<Target Name="MyTarget">
<Message Text="Hello, Bitch!" />
</Target>
I hope this can bypass the VS2013 built-in built process and only carry out my own batch.
It works well on command prompt:
But in Visual Studio, when I right click the project and choose build command, it gives me a lot of link errors.
How to avoid these link errors? Since my batch can take care of all the build process, I don't need Visual Studio to do the link for me.
ADD 2
It seems these link errors show up because I include the *.c files with the ClCompile tag as below.
<ItemGroup>
<ClCompile Include="z:\MyProject1\source1.c" />
<ItemGroup>
Since I don't want VS2013 to invoke the compiler, I change it to <ClInclude> tag, the link errors disappeared, but the symbol resolution is not working... Seems I shouldn't change the tag.
ADD 3
Here's another way to compile without linking.
Is it possible for Visual Studio C++ to compile objects without linking
Seems it doesn't have the symbol resolution issue. But I still cannot invoke an external batch by click build/rebuild/clean.
You might want to look into Visual Studio's makefile projects (in the Visual C++/General project templates category).
You get to specify what commands to execute for each type of build (clean, build, rebuild). The command can invoke a make, run a batch file, or invoke some other build tool. It just executes a command. The commands can contain various macros that VS provides (similar to environment variables) so the command can be parametrized for things like making a target directory based on the solution or project name or type (debug vs. release).
(Michael Burr's reply pointed out a better direction, i.e. a better VC++ project template. You can combine my answer and his.)
Finally, I solved this issue!
The trick is the so-called target overriding. The Visual Studio context menu items Build\Rebuild\Clean correspond to MSBuild targets named Build\Rebuild\Clean, respectively. We just need to override them in the *.vcxproj file.
Such as this:
DO REMEMBER that:
The last target seen by MSBuild is the one that is used — this is why
we put the at the end of the existing *.vcxproj file.
And in the override.proj, do whatever you like as below:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="Build override!" />
<Exec Command="kickass.bat" />
</Target>
</Project>
The following 2 links are good reference:
Hack the build
Hijacking the Visual Studio Build Process
Note that:
The 1st link take a CSharp project as example, but ALSO works with VC++ project.
The 2nd link doesn't work for VC++ project but the rational is similar. If you didn't include the Microsoft.Cpp.targets, you will see the following error when loading the project:
ADD 1
As I tried, we don't need another overrride.proj file. We can just place the specific target at the end of the *.vcxprj file. Such as below:
ADD 2
With target overriding mentioned above, I can run my customized bat file with project's Build/Rebuild/Clean commands. But I noticed that when I run solution's Build/Rebuild/Clean commands, I think it is just following some kind of project dependency order to build each project respectively, which is not exactly equivalent to what I want for an overall build in my scenario.
My current workaround is to create a dummy project and use it to trigger a batch for my overall build.
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 have a solution with several web application projects in it. After all the projects have been built I need to run an MSBUILD script.
What I used to do was call the script from one of the existing projects (through <Target Name="AfterBuild"> in the .csproj file). However, I had to make sure I used the project that built last, and if the build order ever changed I would get unexpected results.
So, I decided to make an empty web application project, and set the project dependencies so that it always built last, then attach the MSBUILD script to this.
So now it always runs at the right time, but I get an extra (tiny) assembly as a result of the supposedly empty project being built. There are no code files in the project (except AssemblyInfo.cs), but an assembly is always produced.
So, is there either a way to stop the assembly being built, or maybe a way to attach the MSBUILD script to the solution as a whole and avoid this dummy project altogether?
In MSBuild 4.0 there are two new hooks that can be used to run scripts before and after a solution is built. When running MSBuild on a solution file, it will look for two target files in the solution directory:
before.SolutionName.sln.targets
after.SolutionName.sln.targets
If any of those files is found, it will automatically be executed at the proper stage.
In your case, in order to run a script after all the projects in the solution have been built, you could create an after.MySolution.sln.targets file with a Target like:
<Target Name="RunPostBuildScripts" AfterTargets="Build">
<MSBuild Projects="PostBuild.targets" />
</Target>
See also:
Extending the solution build
I don't have enough reputation points to comment on the Enrico's accepted answer so I will just comment here that this doesn't work when you run the build in Visual Studio 2010 itself. It does work when MSBuild is run as a command-line.
If one project can't build, Visual Studio, by default, keeps right on trying to build all the other projects that depend on that project, and therefore gets stupid errors because those other projects are now building against a stale version of the binary.
How can I change this behavior, and get it to stop on failure?
For example, suppose I have a library project called MyApp.Core, and an executable project called MyApp. MyApp calls a method in MyApp.Core. Suppose I add a new parameter to that method and then try to build, but I've inadvertently introduced an unrelated compiler error in MyApp.Core. When I build, Visual Studio will:
Try to build MyApp.Core, and fail because of the compiler error. The MyApp.Core.dll on disk is left unchanged because the build failed.
Go on to try to build MyApp against that older version of MyApp.Core.dll, and report compiler errors because it's passing more parameters than the method in the old DLL expects.
Report the second batch of errors at the top of the Errors window, thus making it very difficult to find the actual problem.
Make has had this problem solved since 1977: when it realizes that it can't build, it stops building. Every other build system and IDE that I've used is also clever enough to stop on a lost cause. But Visual Studio hasn't quite caught up to the technological sophistication of 1977.
The book "Visual Studio Hacks", in its section on macros, has a workaround: you can write a macro that fires when a project is done building; if the project's build status was "failed", the macro can issue a Cancel Build command. I regularly install this hack on every computer I use that has Visual Studio. However, at home I use Visual C# Express, which doesn't support macros.
Is there any way to get Visual Studio 2010 (including the Express editions) to stop building on a build failure?
As much as I like MSBuild, there isn't a built-in way to do this when using the solution file to build (as you've already discovered). With Resharper's analysis enabled I find that compiler errors are very rare for me these days, so I rarely have the problem of overwhelming error messages.
At my previous shop, someone routinely gacked-up the build so that one of the root projects in a solution of over 60 projects and because of that, many people took to running projects individually from the command line similar to running individual Make files.
If you really wanted to handle this problem in a different way than the macro you mentioned, you could construct an external msbuild file that executes the projects individually and checks for errors in-between runs. You'll have to keep the build ordering correct, and you'll need to run it from the command line and/or add a shortcut to the Tools menu option.
Here's an example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild ContinueOnError="false" Projects="log4net\log4net.csproj" Targets="Build">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="BuildOutput"/>
</MSBuild>
<MSBuild ContinueOnError="false" Projects="Project1\Project1.csproj" Targets="Build">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="BuildOutput"/>
</MSBuild>
<MSBuild ContinueOnError="false" Projects="Project3\Project3.csproj" Targets="Build">
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="BuildOutput"/>
</MSBuild>
</Target>
<!-- <OnError ExecuteTargets="ErrorTarget" /> //-->
</Project>
Replace the projects with your projects, and the group will need to be mimicked for the Clean target.
I wish there was a better solution and I don't know why the MSBuild team won't add this feature into the product. Like you said, Make figured it out decades ago. FWIW, I don't know how well this works with complicated build dependencies and build parallelism.
My problems with MSBuild center around the ResolveAssemblyReferences, and ResolveComReferences Tasks which are the slowest part of a build in a big solution with a large/complicated project dependency tree (large being relative ~30 projects at a minimum).
I hope this helps.
There is also this free extension for Visual Studio 2010/2012/2013 that does this.
StopOnFirstBuildError (Download)
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/91aaa139-5d3c-43a7-b39f-369196a84fa5
Stop Build on first error in Visual Studio 2010 (Write-up)
http://einaregilsson.com/stop-build-on-first-error-in-visual-studio-2010/
You can also kill the process called cl.exe using the task manager. There might be multiple cl.exe processes - killing just one of them should be enough.
This will stop the build process immediately.
I always just hold down the "Pause / Break" key when I see it happening and it cancels the build.
MSBuild is now the build engine for all supported languages in Visual Studio. I'd like to start taking advantage of that system in order to simplify a ton of logic I have crammed into pre- and post- build scripts.
To that end, I'd have to write the MSBuild script manually, because I'd like to have more than one target in a single file. I.e. I'd like to be able to just type "msbuild myproject.msbuild", and have the whole works build itself from scratch, like I can with, say, make.
But, I'd rather avoid having to maintain completely separate "project" files for Visual Studio given that it's all built on top of MSBuild now anyway.
Is there a way for me to do this?
My advice would be to just consolidate any targets into a common area that can be shared by all your projects, and call those targets from your standard projects.
<!-- Your normal projects -->
<Import Project="..\Library\Common.Targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<CallTarget Targets="Common_BeforeBuild_DoFoo" />
</Target>
...
<!-- Library\Common.Targets -->
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Common_BeforeBuild_DoFoo">
...
</Target>
</Project>
That should also work for custom tasks that you may want to add, although we ended up using a similar approach to the way the MSBuild Community Tasks integrated themselves into MSBuild, it's open source so you can see how they did it, although this may be overkill for your requirements, and I probably wouldn't go this far again unless absolutely necessary.
In addition factoring common logic into commonly-imported targets as others have suggested, you can make a 'master' project that builds the others, see e.g. the examples at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z7f65y0d.aspx
which show how to use the <MSBuild> task to invoke MSBuild on other projects (though I am unclear if each 'sub MSBuild' shares its dependency analysis or not).
In C#, at least, there's no reason to not add additional targets or even item groups. I'd just give it a try and see what happens.
Of course, you won't be able to edit such targets using the Visual Studio project designer.