Thursday, May 20, 2010

MSBuild: Targeting a Configuration from the Command Line

Update: Read the comments for some good tips from other readers.

Firing up Visual Studio to simply build a solution is nuts. Do it from the Visual Studio Command Prompt instead and save yourself time.

What I always forget, though, is how to specify a release build, ergo I’m writing this blog post so I can quickly find it the next time I need it.

From the command line, use the “/p:” switch and pass the value “Configuration=Release” like so:

msbuild CommunityServer.Sync.sln /p:Configuration=Release

I’m also in the habit of first doing a clean build before the release build to ensure I’ve got no leftover cruft:

msbuild CommunityServer.Sync.sln /target:clean

(Actually, I tie all this stuff together with SlickRun shortcuts and batch files, which is even better!)

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4 comments:

  1. Unknown5/20/2010 3:34 PM

    One thing to keep in mind - when running clean, you'll want to specify "/p:Configuration=Release" otherwise you'll clean the Debug configuration.

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  2. Paul5/20/2010 7:49 PM

    Jim, if you go with something like:
    msbuild CommunityServer.Sync.sln /p:Configuration=Release /t:Clean;Build

    This will run a clean and then a full build of the solution due to the specified targets switch. If you just go with Clean you won't get build binaries, just removal of the last compilation.

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  3. Jim Holmes5/20/2010 10:14 PM

    @Sean & @Paul -- thanks for the clarifications. I was a dork to miss the important issue of specifying WHICH config to clean!

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  4. stej5/21/2010 7:16 AM

    I had problems with dependencies when I used just sln file as a source for msbuild.
    In this case msbuild wasn't able to figure out what project depends on the other. That's why for each such a sln file I have something like

    <Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <Target Name="CreateProjects" Outputs="@(Projects)">
    <CreateItem
    Include="{0}">
    <Output ItemName="Projects" TaskParameter="Include"/>
    </CreateItem>
    </Target>

    <Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="CreateProjects">
    <Message Text="Projects (pseudo)order: %(Projects.FileName)"></Message>
    <MSBuild
    Projects="@(Projects)"
    Properties="Configuration={1}"
    Targets="Build" StopOnFirstFailure="true">
    </MSBuild>
    </Target>

    </Project>

    (copied from psake build. {0} is replaced with actual projects paths)

    ReplyDelete