This may be a noobish question but here I go anyway.
So in VS I have a project whose build configuration I changed from Debug|AnyCpu to Release|AnyCpu.
Now this all works good and fine and when I build the project via VS this configuration is also used in the build process.
however I am also using the msbuild.exe in order to build the project via command sometimes and the problem is no matter what I do I can not change the
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
element of the project via VS. So setting the build configuration does only seem to work for VS and I bascially have to manually add this in the project file so that the msbuild.exe uses the correct build configuration.
Any Idea how I can change it in VS so the change also alters the project file ?
You don't need to change it explicitly. This string is "default configuration" for msbuild and VS - if no $(Configuration) value specified - set it to Debug.
If you want to build release configuration using msbuild you may want to specify configuration property or platform architecture in command line explicitly:
msbuild.exe myProject.csproj /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="Any CPU"
Related
I've been a linux/make guy and recently I'm learning to build UE5 engine from VS 2022. I need to figure out a CLI way to build it.
For example, I right click on one of the modules (not sure if it's the most proper name) and choose 'Build' then the build will start. I want to automate the procedure using CLI.
How can I find the corresponding CLI command for this manual operation?
I don't have access to the Unreal Engine source code and I don't know if Epic has done anything highly unconventional.
From your start menu launch the "Developer Command Prompt for VS2022". This is a shortcut file for launching the Windows command line with a batch file run to set up the PATH and other environment variables for the Visual Studio development tools.
Visual Studio project files (.csproj for C# and .vcxproj for C++ for example) are MSBuild files. (MSBuild was inspired by Ant, if that helps.)
Solution files (.sln) are a completely different format but MSBuild can build a solution file.
From the screenshot in the question I can see that the solution is UE5 which will be UE5.sln. I can also see that you want to build a C++ project. I'm guessing the project may be named BenchmarkTest (BenchmarkTest.vcxproj)?
MSBuild has a notion of targets. A target always has a name and it groups a set of tasks to be performed. (It's like a makefile rule in some respects but it's not the same.)
Solutions and projects created with Visual Studio support some standard targets. The 'Build', 'Rebuild', and 'Clean' menu items map directly to some of these targets.
Visual Studio solutions and projects support Configurations and Platforms. The standard Configurations are Debug and Release. The screenshot shows a non-standard configuration of Develop. The screenshot also shows a platform of Win64.
In the Developer Command Prompt, msbuild should be in the PATH. Try the following command:
msbuild --version
To build the solution with the default target (which is 'build') and the default configuration and platform:
msbuild UE5.sln
To run a 'clean':
msbuild UE5.sln -target:clean
The target switch can be shortened to -t.
The configuration and platform are passed as properties using the -property switch. The short form is -p. Multiple property switches can be provided and multiple properties, delimited by ';', can be provided in one property switch.
msbuild UE5.sln -t:rebuild -p:Configuration=Develop -p:Platform=Win64
or
msbuild UE5.sln -t:rebuild -p:Configuration=Develop;Platform=Win64
To build the BenchmarkTest project, specify the project file:
msbuild BenchmarkTest.vcxproj -t:build -p:Configuration=Develop;Platform=Win64
I have created InstallShield Basic MSI project from Visual Studio (IS 2012 Spring, VS 2010). My InstallShield project having 2 product configurations and each configuration having one release.
Product Configuration 1
Release 1
Product Configuration 2
Release 2
For building project in VS IDE, I need to set the corresponding product configuration as 'Default Product Configuration' and build. This is working fine. The Default configuration release is getting build.
But, how can we achieve this in MSBuild command line?
I need to build both configuration separately using MSBuild command line (without changing Default configuration through IDE).
Could anyone please share the proper way to build IS project in MSBuild command line?
Thanks,
Saravanan
how can we achieve this in MSBuild command line?
You can use Properties in the MSBuild command line:
msbuild test.sln /t:project /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x86" /p:BuildProjectReferences=false
You can also build multiple projects at once:
msbuild test.sln /t:project;project2 /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x86" /p:BuildProjectReferences=false
Note:
what is assigned to /t is the project name in the solution, it can be different from the project file name.
One important note: if your project has a '.' in the name, you'll need to replace it with a '_' when specifying it with /t
I need to build VS solution under Visual Studio Online. But when I run it, I get an error:
C:\a\50009cdf\Mobius-ASG\Prototyping\VCPROJ\SystemAl.sln.metaproj(0,0): Error MSB4126: The specified solution configuration "Debug|any cpu" is invalid. Please specify a valid solution configuration using the Configuration and Platform properties (e.g. MSBuild.exe Solution.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those properties blank to use the default solution configuration.
I've tried to change 'BuildPlatform' to 'Mixed Platforms' and 'BuildConfiguration' to 'Release'. But it didn't help, I got same error but with new values:
The specified solution configuration "Release|Mixed Platforms" is invalid. Please specify a valid solution configuration using the Configuration and Platform properties (e.g. MSBuild.exe Solution.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those properties blank to use the default solution configuration
Also I've tried to disable and delete this variables, but still have the same error.
Haw can I fix it?
To set the configuration and platform of the project, please right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Configuration Manager.
In the Configuration Manager dialog, choose the configuration and platform value you want. Check in the pending changes into VSO, and re-run the build without any argument. You should now get the build run successfully.
I have a solution with multiple projects. I am trying to use MSBUILD to automate the deployment. I have following configuration values for building
1. Debug
2. Release
3. Dev
For Some projects, I am using Release mode for DEV configuration. But while using DEV as configuration in MSBUILD command, it is throwing exception saying DEV configuration was not found.
Is there any way we can tell MSBUILD to use Release mode if DEV is not available for a project when DEV is used as configuration in MSBUILD?
Thanks
Ashwani
In your (presumably C#) project file, there is typically a line that looks like this:
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
For the projects that don't have a "Dev" configuration, you can get the behavior you want by adding another line, right before that one...
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Dev' ">Release</Configuration>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
This way, when you build with "Dev" specified, these projects will build their Release configuration instead, which mimics the behavior of the solution's configuration manager (which I tend to think of as an abomination of a feature) directly in the project file itself, which is the right place to do it.
Another approach is to use the AdditionalProperties metadata on the item array you would be passing to the MSBuild task to get your projects built. You can specify--for the projects of interest--the following...
<SolutionItem Include="./PathTo/SomeProject.csproj">
<AdditionalProperties Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Dev'"
>Configuration=Release</AdditionalProperties>
</SolutionItem>
(Excerpted from the book "MSBuild Trickery" trick #80)
I don't think it can be done with a command argument to MSBuild.
What you could do is use the Configuration Manager for Visual Studio and for the solution configuration 'Dev' point the projects which don't have the 'Dev' configuration to Release.
Then you do a solution build for Dev configuration and some projects will build in release.
I'm using the config file replacement feature of Visual Studio 2010's "Publish" functionality, as described in this article. I want to automate this using MSBuild/Hudson. Does anybody know how to do this?
I like how it works but if I cannot automate it I'll have to switch to XmlMassUpdate or similar.
Explanation
To transform your config file you'll have to execute the TransformWebConfig target.
This target takes two files Web.config and Web.$(Configuration).config and generates a Web.config. The generated file is the transformed version of the original one for the current configuration.
This file is generated in folder : obj\$(Configuration)\TransformWebConfig
Usage
You don't really explain what you want to achieve, so here a basic usage, a job that generates a transformed config file in a given folder.
Add the following piece in the end of your project file *.csproj after the import of Microsoft.WebApplication.targets
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- Directory where your web.config will be copied -->
<TransformedWebConfigDestination>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)</TransformedWebConfigDestination>
</PropertyGroup>
<!--
This target transforms the web.config based on current configuration and
put the transformed files in $(TransformedWebConfigDestination) folder
-->
<Target Name="ConfigSubstitution">
<CallTarget Targets="TransformWebConfig"/>
<ItemGroup>
<TransformedWebConfig Include="obj\$(Configuration)\TransformWebConfig\Web.config"/>
</ItemGroup>
<!-- Copy the transformed web.config to the configured destination -->
<Copy SourceFiles="#(TransformedWebConfig)"
DestinationFolder="$(TransformedWebConfigDestination)"/>
</Target>
In Hudson you could add a Build step in your build, or create a dedicated job configured as follow:
MsBuild Build File : Your csproj file.
Command Line Arguments : /t:ConfigSubstitution /p:Platform=AnyCpu;Configuration=Test;TransformedWebConfigDestination=DestinationFolder
Edit your web project.csproj
under
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
Add -
<UseMsDeployExe>True</UseMsDeployExe>
Look at the Build output (make sure VS Tools - Options - Project & Solutions -Build & Run - MSBuild Output Verbosity - Detailed)
You should be able to see the msdeploy commands VS uses to produce the package. It's my understanding that VS actually uses Web Platform Pipeline API's and .target files to actually produce the deploy packages when building using MSBuild, and this command changes to use MsDeploy instead.
This stuff is so in need of documentation, its very frustrating.
I am using this in Hudson to target Release:
/Property:Configuration=Release
The exact settings are:
Build
MSBuild Version: msbuild-4 (configured to point to v4 msbuild)
MsBuild Build File: project_name.sln
Command Line Arguments: /Property:Configuration=Release
You can test this in your project directory by running something similar (as your .NET framework version may differ) to this:
%SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild project.sln /Property:Configuration=Release