When executing build->clean solution in Visual Studio 2005 I want to also remove some debug text files that may exist in my build directory. The file name will always be the same, i.e. debug.txt. Is there a way to get Visual Studio to do this?
Go to Project->Properties and choose configuration properties.
THere's an entry "Extensions to delete on clean". Add *.txt to it and that just should do the trick. Or you can explicitly specify debug.txt
Related
I am fairly new to using TeamCity. We are currently using 9.16.
I am trying to setup a build template to associate across our many projects and I keep getting the error "Failed to find Visual Studio .sln file" for both the NuGet Installer step and Visual Studio (.sln).
Currently it is set to %system.teamcity.build.checkoutDir% and it says there is no *.sln file there, but there is when I look at the build server directly.
Failed to find Visual Studio .sln file at C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\58ef95107452dcbc\*.sln
I found the post regarding attaching the VCS root, but I do have that attached and it mirrors the projects that currently do not use a template.
Any help as to what I am missing would be greatly appreciated.
You must put the filename of your visual studio solution file in the "Solution file path" field of the "Visual Studio (.sln)" build runner step.
If your .sln file is at the root of your checkout directory you would specify the filename. Example: YourSolution.sln
For the "Nuget Installer" build runner step you must put the same solution filename in the "Path to Solution File" field.
Note that if your solution file is not in the root folder of your checkout folder you must specify the relative path. Example: path/to/my/SolutionFile.sln
What I was attempting to do is not possible.
Instead I created a parameter at the root level for SolutionFile in the templates. Then I simply change the value of that parameter in each project that uses the template.
In my case I was moving from SVN to GIT with TeamCity, and so had to change the VCS root from:
http://build.server.url:81/svn/MyApp/
To,
http://Build-Server-User#git.build.server.url:7990/MyApp/MyApp.git
Also, I had to change "checkout rules" from:
+:trunk => .
To,
+: => .
Because the default branch in TeamCity for GIT is refs/heads/master
For details, please see https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/TCD10/Git
When I use the option Publish... selecting as target the file system in Visual Studio 2015 it compiles the code, do the XML transformation in the Web.config files and copy the files to the folder I specified.
It does not copy any *.cs file as expected since it is compiled.
Something that I don't understand is why it publishes the Nuget Config file (packages.config), after all, the files needed are already in the bin folder.
I found this question that says how to avoid but not the reason they decided this file would be usable on the server.
Can I stop VS from publishing packages.config?
Anyone know why packages.config end up in the publish folder?
I have a C# Visual Studio solution with about 15 projects. When I build the solution I want all DLL and EXE files for each project to go to a common folder (called Deploy).
The way I was thinking about doing it was, for each project's Post-build Event Command Line section put the following commands:
IF NOT EXIST $(SolutionDir)Deploy (
'If directory does not exist, create it
MKDIR $(SolutionDir)Deploy
) ELSE (
'Delete directory to make sure it's "clean"
RMDIR /F /S /Q $(SolutionDir)Deploy
MKDIR $(SolutionDir)Deploy
)
'Copy executable and required DLLs to Deploy directory
COPY /Y $(TargetPath) $(SolutionDir)Deploy
COPY /Y $(TargetDir)*.dll $(SolutionDir)Deploy
The problem with doing it this way, however, is I have 15 projects and would have put this in each individual project's post build event section and also, every time I add a new project, I would have to remember to do the same for it.
I checked the solution file properties and did not see a way to set a solution-wide post build event to copy all the files so I did a few Google searches.
One page said to use a C++ Makefile project. I added this type of project to my solution and clicked on the project properties page and found that there is a section under Configuration Properties->NMake with the following:
Build Command Line
Rebuild All Command Line
Clean Command Line
Using the Makefile project's Command Line option poses a similar problem to above. Many different commands to copy each of my 15 project's output files such as:
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project1\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project2\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
...
COPY /Y $(SolutionDir)Project15\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\*.exe $(SolutionDir)Deploy
There is another apparent problem with doing it this way. As you can see I took advantage of the $(SolutionDir) and $(ConfigurationName) macros but I had to hard-code each project name.
I didn't see any macros like $(AllProjects), $(AllProjectDirs), etc.
Also, it appears that command line commands for Makefile projects are for building, not post-build events, so I gave up on this idea altogether.
I then tried using a Visual Studio Installer project. After adding the project to my solution I right-clicked the project and saw that there was an Add->Project Output... option. This brought up a dialog allowing me to add one of my other project's Primary Output. I repeated this for each of my other projects and rebuilt.
What resulted was an .MSI file in the output folder. I then opened installer project properties and changed the Package files option to As loose uncompressed files and rebuilt. The output folder now contained all my project's EXE and DLL files!
Most people would be satisfied at this point and move on but I am the kind of person who likes to find the best way to do things.
There was one thing I didn't like about using the installer project option, the fact that, besides copying the files from all my projects, it also created an MSI file (which I don't need) and I didn't see any option tell it not to create one.
Can anyone recommend a another/better way to accomplish my goal of copying all project output files to a single folder?
Thank you.
P.S. I was thinking I could just make a batch file to search and copy all the EXE and DLL files to the Deploy folder but I would have to run the batch file outside of the Visual Studio IDE and also hard-code the configuration folder (Debug or Deploy).
Can't you just change the Output Directory of the C++ projects? See How to: Change the Build Output Directory.
On the menu bar, choose Project, Properties.
Expand the Configuration Properties node, and choose General.
Change the Output Directory value to the new output directory.
If you want both options, you can also create multiple configurations for your VS projects and solutions, similar to the standard "Debug" and "Release" ones. Create a new configuration from one of the existing ones, then change the output directory and save. Now you can just switch the configuration at the solution level to build into another directory. See this link for detailed steps:
How to: Create and Edit Configurations
I am using Visual Studio Express 2012. Where is the location of the log file? I have searched in the folder where my solution and projects are stored, but cannot find any .log file.
This is the configuration for logging:
Log file from Visual Studio is only supported for C++ projects. You just have to work with the output window for others.
See this similar thread: VS2010: minimal build log in output and detailed log in log file
And in case you happen to do this for a C++ project, the file is at:
... build log in the intermediate files directory
... The path and name of the build log is represented by the MSBuild macro
expression, $(IntDir)\$(MSBuildProjectName).log.
Use build output instead of logging to file. Instead of copy/paste, simply click somewhere in the output and press CTRL + S to save. Visual Studio will prompt you for a location (tested with Visual Studio 2017, but I'm assuming this works in earlier versions too).
The msdn documentation is pretty clear about this (And you ain't gonna like it!):
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj651643.aspx
Where it says:
To create a build log file for a managed-code project On the menu bar,
choose Build, Build Solution.
In the Output window, highlight the
information from the build, and then copy it to the Clipboard.
Open a
text editor, such as Notepad, paste the information into the file, and
then save it.
While it's true that VS doesn't allow this directly, it is still possible to build with MSBuild "inside" VS2015 and get both the build window output and the log file, as follows: (Arguably this is a bit of a hack.)
In your VS Managed solution, add a new project (Let's call it 'Make').
a. The project type you want is Visual C++/NMake project.
Define the MSBuild commands you need on the command line (see below).
Change the solution configuration to build the NMake project instead of the normal managed projects.
This will create a project that has Build, Rebuild, and Clean command lines where you can execute MSBuild directly. For example:
Rebuild: MSBuild.exe /ds /v:diag /property:Configuration=Debug ..\BuildTest\BuildTest.csproj /t:Clean,Build
Build: MSBuild.exe /ds /v:diag /property:Configuration=Debug ..\BuildTest\BuildTest.csproj /t:Build
Clean: MSBuild.exe /ds /v:diag /property:Configuration=Debug ..\BuildTest\BuildTest.csproj /t:Clean
You can also specify multiple MSBuild.EXE command lines in order to build multiple projects. For the usual build-the-entire-solution outcome you can target only the final end assemblies and let the dependency graph generate the individual targets.
This will produce a .log file, where NAME is the name of the NMake project you used. In the example above, the log would be make.log.
A working example is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/bitblitz/VS_MsbuildExample
(Tested with VS2015)
Note that building individual projects directly will still build with the normal VS behavior, but you can build the full solution inside VS and get the build logs.
When I build a Visual Studio project, the executable is written to the output directory specified in the projects Property Page.
I have a project that has some extra files (e.g., .ini file) that are used by the program.
How can I configure the project to copy the file to the output directory so that when the program runs, it has a copy of the other file in its CWD?
I checked the Property Page of the file and there was nothing useful other than an option to exclude it from the build (which is disabled), and the custom-build-tool command is empty (plus it is a plain-text file that does not need any processing).
For copying a files to the output directory in Visual Studio 2003 you could use Post-Build event:
Right click on the project->Properties
Common Properties->Build Events
Set Post-Build Event Command Line to:
xcopy /y $(ProjectDir)my_file.ini $(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)
OK and build!
Please try select the file in Solution Explorer. Then you should be able to see its properties in Properties window (press F4 if it is not visible). You will find there two properties:
"Build Action" and
"Copy to Output Directory"
Set "Build Action" to "Content", and then - select an appropriate value for "Copy to Output Directory" setting.
File properties window with "Build Action" and "Copy to Output Directory" settings
If the way above doesn't work for you, please read this post "Copy to output directory issue with .inf file". And have a look at this one then "Visual Studio: default build action for non-default file-types"
While I was searching the file’s Property Page for a build-action field, I had a thought: set the custom build step to copy the file (manually). This turned out to be easier than I thought. I had figured it would require using cmd or other external executable (xcopy, robocopy, etc.), but that is not necessary.
I set the Custom Build Step as follows:
Command Line : copy $(InputFileName) $(OutDir)
Description : Copying foobar...
Outputs : $(InputFileName)
Setting the outputs field (correctly) was critical in order to prevent VS from always thinking the project is out of date and requiring to be rebuilt (I’m not certain if it needs to be prefixed with $(OutDir)\).
It is reflected in the Output window as such:
Copying foobar...
1 file(s) copied.
Compiling resources...
Linking...
For VS 2017 the command Dmitry Pavlov posted would be the following:
xcopy /y "$(ProjectDir)my_file.ini" "$(OutDir)"
Quotes are important in case there are spaces in the path to the project directory.
Expanding on Synetech's answer.
In VS2019 right click the file you want to copy in the Solution Explorer and select Properties. Then under General >> Item Type change to Copy File then hit Apply.
You now should have UI fields in the Properties Page for Destination etc.
In case this helps anyone, I needed to copy the output dll of the project i was building into another project.
xcopy /y "$(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt)"
"C:\Application\MyApplicationName\bin\x86\Debug"
/y = overwrite file if already exists
$(ProjectDir) = location on your machine where the project lives
$(OutDir) = is where your current build setup outputs the build
$(TargetName) = What the project being built is set to be called. Ex: XXX of XXX.dll
$(TargetExt) = the extension of the build Ex: .dll of XXX.dll
"C:/..../x86/Debug" is the location to copy to.
You need the extra $(OutDir). Otherwise, in the rebuild/clean step it will throw away your source.
CommandLine : copy "$(SolutionDir)last-script.js" "$(TargetDir)Debug"
Outputs : $(TargetDir)Debug\last-script.js
Improving Synetech
answer :
In VS 2013 C++ project Command Line : copy %(Identity) $(OutDir) Description : Copying foobar... Outputs : %(Identity)
It works , But it leads to circular dependency , i.e. it will be executed each time you demand increamental build, no meter it has been already copied.
To solve this , you can add that item at target folder, change path to $(OutDir), and use that in first added item as Output. Drawback - two items with similar name are in solution.
Also usefull xcopy with /d /y parameters in postbuild - copy only if target file date is older.
You could also after the unload the project (Right click on the project >> Unload Project) add the following inside an existent <ItemGroup> tag:
<Content Include="..\..\Config\db.config">
<Link>Config\db.config</Link>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<SubType>Designer</SubType>
</Content>
In this case it will grab the db.config file from 2 folders up and put it in the output folder(by default bin/Debug) after creating a Config folder with the db.config file inside