specify project file of a solution using msbuild

Question

I want the commandline for building a particular project of a solution using msbuild like we do with devenv.com.In devenv.com we can specify a project of a solution using following commandline

devenv.com /Build Release|x86 test.sln /project "testproject"

Using the above commandline i can build the testproject in the test.sln using devenv.com.What is the commandline for msbuild for the same solution.

Thanks

Solution 1

msbuild test.sln /t:project /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x86" /p:BuildProjectReferences=false

Notice that what is assigned to /t is the project name in the solution, it can be different from the project file name.

Also, as stated in How to: Build specific targets in solutions by using MSBuild.exe:

If the project name contains any of the characters %, $, @, ;, ., (, ), or ', replace them with an _ in the specified target name.

You can also build multiple projects at once:

msbuild test.sln /t:project;project2 /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x86" /p:BuildProjectReferences=false

To rebuild or clean, change /t:project to /t:project:clean or /t:project:rebuild

Solution 2

MSBuild actually works through the use of projects not the solution. The solution is only used to parse it into a temporary project file in MSBuild internally. You should be able to just build the project of interest directly through MSBuild by executing the following command.

"msbuild testproject /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x86"

There is one major issue I know you could run into using the project directly instead of the solution: if you use the solution to express dependencies between the projects, instead of adding the references to the project and letting the build system work out the dependencies automatically.

If you are enforcing a build order using the sln file, I recommend working those dependencies directly into the proj files and removing them from the sln. This will allow you to invoke any proj file from MSBuild directly and the projects will all build independently without any additional work. You really should treat the sln file as a group of projects to make working in Visual Studio easier and not as a build input.

Solution 3

Posting as information to future seekers

Add the following to the build script and run it once. This will generate the exact targets and other information that msbuild will actually use.

Ex: If you have . in the project name or folders msbuild will expect _ in place of the ..

set MSBuildEmitSolution=1

After getting the information update the build script with the required details.

Solution 4

In order to do this, you need to know what the project's target-name is, not necessarily the project name.

One way to find this out is to use MSBuild against your SLN with intended parameters after setting a special environment variable called MSBuildEmitSolution to the value of 1.

set MSBuildEmitSolution=1
msbuild my_stuff.sln /t:rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

I recently had to do this due to a very specific name for a target in nested directories. So from my generated file, my_stuff.sln.metaproj I found this line:

<Target Name="Utils\Firewall\FirewallUtils:Rebuild">

That means the command-line to use ends up being,

msbuild my_stuff.sln /t:Utils\Firewall\FirewallUtils:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

Solution 5

Just to add additional information, executing msbuild in the project folder will by default build the project file since its the only one there.

>msbuild

There are many variations of using msbuild this way. You can specify the proj file directly.

>msbuild helloworld.csproj -t:Build.

Review the msbuild documentation for usage, proj file requirements, as well and the benefits of building the project instead of the solution.

MS MSBuild Documentation

There are benefits to building this way as mentioned by mark-smith above.

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Comments

[Watusimoto]

One important note: if your project has a '.' in the name, you'll need to replace it with a '_' when specifying it with /t

[Philippe]

@easton For building multiple projects, the synthax was for my msbuild to repeat the /t parameter for each project to build: msbuild test.sln /t:project /t:project2

[Easton L.]

@Philippe Thanks for the information, it can be that for different version of msbuild, the syntax is different. Would you mind to share the version of msbuild and visual studio.

[Philippe]

The last one at the moment, so version 4.0

[CodeManX]

error MSB4057: the target build "v8" does not exist in the project is all I get, VS 2013 Ultimate. Details: stackoverflow.com/questions/32078468/…

[Travis Parks]

Also, if you are using a solution folder, you have to prefix the project name with the folder name and a slash. Like @Watusimoto mentioned above, if you have periods (.) in the name, you have to replace them with underscores (_). I ended up with something like this: /t:SlnFolder\My_Project_name.

[ProgramCpp]

Please point to how build order can be enforced from the proj files. Thanks.

[shortstuffsushi]

@Watusimoto do you have a source for this? What you've suggested helped me, but I'd like to know why.

[joshbodily]

@TravisParks: Also might be worth mentioning that "solution folder" does not refer to a file system folder but rather a folder in the Solution Explorer view.

[Maxime]

I also had to replace '(' and ')' with '_' in the folder name (GYP generated projects). I guess it's all the special characters are replaced with underscore.

[Alex]

Here is another problem with using the project name directly. For example, you have 5 projects in your solution. Some projects have DebugPro configuration and other projects don't have it. If you build a project with the configuration that all projects have everything is file but only solution file know which project configuration to use for each project if you selected solution configuration DebugPro.

[hdev]

` If you have '.' in the project name or folders msbuild will expect '_' in place of the '.'.`

[jpaugh]

@ProgramCpp When you add references from one project to another, it automatically figures out that the referenced project needs to build first.

[Ibrahim ben Salah]

How about a project inside a solution folder, with dots and spaces. If I move the project from solution folder i can build it, if not than there is no way that I could guess that worked for me...argh.

[Yepeekai]

One additional thing: If you build the solution, "Any CPU" is ok but if you build the project (csproj directly instead of the sln) I needed to use AnyCPU without the space. I obviously had the reverse problem here.

[Tomas Kubes]

Another disadvantage of this approach is that relative path in the project are resolved relative to solution file. Once you build project directly relative path will change. Output might be elsewhere and unit tests might lookup wrong directories.

[osjerick]

Problems may also appear if you use solution variables in project configuration, like $(SolutionDir)

[No Refunds No Returns]

This was what I needed. Hint if you don't want to run this: your target is the folder structure from the current path to your project file, minus the project file extension (.csproj in my case). I <3 SO!

[joseangelmt]

If the project is in a folder with dots: avoid the dots. For example if the project is in the abc.def\ghi, use /t:abcdef\ghi

[mystack]

@EastonL. Happy to see that my question and your answer helps a lot of people. Thanks Again after 8 years :-)

[mathkid91]

My issue was that I had a ; (semicolon) at the end of the last project too, in the /t stuff.