Run a solution from Visual Studio console without opening the IDE

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010 SP1.

What I first tried was this:

1. Open the Visual Studio console tool from start menu
2. Navigate to project folder (which already contains an executable)
3. Run: msbuild myproject.sln or msbuild myproject.sln /p:Configuration=Release
4. This builds successfully, but I can't find an executable to run

 

1. The second thing I tried was steps 1 and 2 from above
2. Running: devenv myproject.sln /Build and devenv myproject.sln /Run
3. This somewhat works but it seems to open the IDE to run the build
4. The whole point was to avoid using the ide at all.

Now, how do I build and run a solution without opening the IDE?

--------------------------FIXED------------------------------

The problem was that I was looking in the wrong place for the executable (noob mistake). I ended up using this batch file:

msbuild myproj.sln /p:configuration=Release
cd (("Path to executable" usually in the Debug/Release Folder))
myExecutableName
cd (("Path to original folder"))

Solution

• Navigate to your solution folder
• Run: msbuild myproject.sln /p:Configuration=Release (or Debug)
• cd myproject (within your solution folder - it's a sub-folder)
• cd bin
• cd Release (or Debug)
• Run: myproject.exe

You can replace the three separate cd commands with a single one:

cd myproject\bin\Release

Or simply run your executable from the solution folder:

myproject\bin\Release\myproject.exe

Comments

[Vlad Otrocol]

I ended up making a batch file which builds, navigates, runs and navigates back.

[Ken White]

Yep, that would be much easier. I figured you'd work that part out. :-)