I am trying to write unit tests for my transformations, so I am running:
msbuild migrated-project.csproj /p:Configuration=Release /T:TransformWebConfig.
This works for a new project I create in VS2010, but doesn't in this project. I'm assuming it's because it was originally a 2008 project. I know this is supposed to run in a webplatformbuild whatever, but what I'm trying to do, is just run the transform, so I can grab the transformed web.config, and run some unit tests to make sure the right values exist.
I don't see TransformWebConfig referenced as a target in either project, so I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
TransformWebConfig is referenced through Microsoft.WebApplication.targets, which references Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets which contains the TransformWebConfig target you're after.
I don't know what's the problem with your project without having a look at your project file. Do you mind to attach it?
Might be worth to check whether the project references the version 10 of Visual Studio WebApplication target:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />)
instead of:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
Related
I am in need of a tool that will allow me to create a local build definition so that I may select projects in my solution to build in a particular order. It seems that either my configuration of VS 2019 just won't allow me to do that or I'm an idiot on how to do it.
BTW, NOT Visual Studio Code
One way to achieve this would be to create references between the projects, such that they're built in dependency order.
If you don't actually want to reference the output of the referenced project, you can exclude it via something like:
<ProjectReference
Include="..\MyProject\MyProject.csproj"
ReferenceOutputAssembly="false" />
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.
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.
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.
I have a c++ project in VS2010 and a c# project that is to consume this c++ project output (it uses it for p/invoke). I was thinking that I could ensure that the c++ project was build before the c# project by editing the "Project dependencies..." in the solution but this does not seem to have any effect, the build on my buildserver does not respect this setting (I'm using TeamCity to bootstrap an MSBuild file that builds the entire solution file)
I think this used to work, has anything changed with VS2010? Or should I declare the dependency in another way?
SOLUTION: The trick was to hand-edit the csproj file outside VS2010 and add a section like this:
<ProjectReference Include="..\CobraLib\CobraLib.vcxproj">
<Project>{598506DA-91DA-4F25-948D-A14CB16ABEBA}</Project>
<Name>CobraLib</Name>
<ReferenceOutputAssembly>false</ReferenceOutputAssembly>
</ProjectReference>
That made the build server process my projects in the correct order. Only caveat is that VS2010 displays an error on the project reference ("not a .NET project") but otherwise things are working as I intended