How can I compile a .NET project without having Visual Studio installed?

Question

I want to compile a .NET/C# project, but I don't want to install Visual Studio to do this.

What tools do I need and how can I compile the project?

Solution 1

1. Download and install the latest .NET Framework.
   For example, you can use the installer for the .NET Framework 4.5 installer.

2. Open a command prompt and change into the installation directory of the .NET Framework.
   For example:

   cd \Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4*
   

3. Use MSBuild.exe to compile your solution.
   For example:

   msbuild "C:\Users\Oliver\Documents\My Project\My Project.sln" /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform="Any CPU"

In case the project uses NuGet packages, you can follow these steps to retrieve them:

1. Download the NuGet.exe Command Line boostrapper and, for example, place it inside the solution directory.

2. Open a command prompt and change into the solution directory.
   For example:

   cd "C:\Users\Oliver\Documents\My Project"
   

3. Invoke NuGet.exe to update the packages required for this solution:

   NuGet.exe install "My Project/packages.config" -o packages/
   

Solution 2

If you want to avoid installing Visual Studio, you might want to try Mono, a cross-platform and open source .NET runtime and development framework. Mono is based on the published ECMA standard for C# and is directly compatible with pre-compiled C# applications.

Mono also includes a tool called XBuild which can fully replace MSBuild. See this article from the Mono project regarding porting a project from MSBuild to XBuild. A one-line description of XBuild from the Wiki:

xbuild is Mono's implementation of msbuild and it allows projects that have an msbuild file to be compiled natively on Linux.

Note that in addition to Linux, Windows and Mac OS X are also supported.

Comments

[Oliver Salzburg]

@svick: If I would need to have it to compile the project, then I would use it. But in this case it isn't necessary, so I don't have to install it on every machine where I want to deploy the project. I can simply pull a copy from the VCS, compile it and run it. Installing VS Express would have overcomplicated the whole process.

[svick]

In that case, a simpler solution might be deploy a compiled assembly. That way, you don't have to do any compiling on every machine.

[Oliver Salzburg]

@svick: Thanks for your insight, but deploying binaries briefly crossed my mind as well. If I had considered it a beneficial alternative in this case, I would have done it. That being said, this question and answer were posted to simply describe a process. Deciding if this process is the way to go in the users case is a decision left to them.

[Karan]

Nice! Any MSBuild documentation links? Also, this is for a VS project one already has, right? What about compiling code in .CS or other source files?

[Ramhound]

@Karan - Anyone care to make an answer based on this article msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/78f4aasd.aspx?

[Karan]

@Ramhound: I guess someone knowledgeable can as well incorporate all this into a single FAQ-type answer. Also some follow-up questions that can be addressed. Is csc.exe also bundled with an end-user .NET framework install? Is it included if you only install the Client Profile?

[Oliver Salzburg]

@Karan: I've added a link to the MSBuild.exe command line argument documentation. Yes, this is for a project that is already on the local machine (maybe downloaded from GitHub). As Ramhound mentions, csc.exe would be the go-to tool to compile single files. csc.exe is bundled with the .NET Framework as well. It is the core C# compiler and MSBuild probably just invokes it. Not sure about the client profile, but I would assume they are included with it.

[Ramhound]

@Karan - If nobody else adds the information I suppose I could do it. The Client Profile has to include the csc.exe which is require to compile .cs files.

[Karan]

@Ramhound: Sure, if you know the ins and outs of using csc.exe then by all means go right ahead. BTW, why does the Client Profile have to include it? Is csc.exe invoked in the normal course of things as well while executing a .NET program? If not, I see no reason it can't be excluded, from the smaller Client Profile at least. Can you clarify?

[Oliver Salzburg]

@Karan: Compiling .NET code is part of the functionality of the .NET Framework. .NET uses JIT compilation (also see msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/…). csc.exe is just a CLI frontend to that functionality.

[Karan]

@OliverSalzburg: I thought the .NET runtime/CLR did the JIT compiling itself, not by invoking a separate executable like csc.exe? csc.exe might provide a CLI frontend to the same functionality, but I don't see any basis for Ramhound's statement that the program must be included even in the Client Profile (whether it is or not is a different matter). IMO the in-built JIT functionality would suffice for 99% of people, since after all how many end users are going to use csc.exe anyway?

[Oliver Salzburg]

@Karan: Right, I guess they didn't have to include the csc.exe frontend itself (unless I'm missing something here).

[Frank Thomas]

@Karan, DotNet assemblies are compiled by csc.exe into a virtual assembly langague called MSIL/CIL. at run time, this assembly is jit compiled into machine code for native execution. Yes, it is possible to write a .net program that generates code and compiles it into an assembly. I used to do that for ORM code generation, and it works pretty well, but I've never tried it on a client machine. I do know that the .net 2 installers compile the framework on the system its being installed on, but that may be C\C++ code (.net native assemblies are usually written in a lower level unmanaged langague)

[heavyd]

@Karan: @Frank Thomas is correct, there are two compilation steps, #1 from source code to CIL which is performed by csc.exe and is packaged into a DLL or EXE. #2 when the application is executed the CLR (the .NET Framework Runtime) JIT compiles the CIL into machine specific code (ie x86, ARM, etc.). You can also pre-compile your assemblies using ngen.exe if you don't want to take the JIT performance hit at run-time, but there are drawbacks.

[Karan]

@heavyd: csc.exe's use for compilation is not being contested in the least. I was simply wondering what use it might have as part of the .NET framework for an end user. I still don't see why it needs to necessarily be part of the package as Ramhound suggested, especially the Client Profile. Perhaps I'm missing something, but as per my limited knowledge it is not required when it comes to simply executing a compiled .NET program.

[allquixotic]

It's required because the CSharpCodeProvider is specified as being available in the Client Profile. Here. Just in case you're wondering - no, I don't think it actually invokes csc.exe when you use that class, but the libraries take up all the space and the libraries are required per the spec, so why not ship the compiler driver binary too, since it's on a few KBs?

[heavyd]

One reason that csc.exe needs to be included is because the Client Profile includes the XmlSerializer class. This class generates serialization assemblies (using csc.exe) at run-time.

[Rishav]

Is there any reason one would use mono on windows?

[Jamie]

@Rishav Political considerations? Perhaps for one who is required to use Windows but wants to use as little other Microsoft technology as possible. Just speculating, though.