Show project indexes when building VS Solution with MSBuild - msbuild

Question

When building a Soultion with Visual Studio, each line is marked with an index that corresponds to a particular procees project:
Build started...
1>------ Build started: Project: rootProject, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
2>------ Build started: Project: SkypeDLAPI_IDL, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
3>------ Build started: Project: NLHCLib, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
4>------ Build started: Project: AprDLAPI_IDL, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
5>------ Build started: Project: DLServiceCMN, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
6>------ Build started: Project: SkypeProfile, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
7>------ Build started: Project: DLRes, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
8>------ Build started: Project: DLMessages, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
2>Processing .\RpcNetworkLock.idl
2>RpcNetworkLock.idl
6>spAccounts.cpp
6>spConversations.cpp
However, when I run MSBuild.exe
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\msbuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\msbuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe" "DeviceLock_vs2019.sln" /p:PreferredToolArchitecture=x64 /p:Configuration="Debug" /p:Platform="Win32" /t:build /maxcpucount:6 /verbosity:Minimal /fileLogger1 /fileloggerparameters1:ErrorsOnly;LogFile="C:/Users/sergey.kolesnik/dev/repos/DLP/main/src/all.log";Verbosity=Minimal;Encoding=ASCII; /fileLogger2 /fileloggerparameters2:ErrorsOnly;Append;LogFile="C:/Users/sergey.kolesnik/dev/repos/DLP/main/src/\all_Debug_Win32.err";Encoding=ASCII; /filelogger4 /fileloggerparameters4:LogFile="C:/Users/sergey.kolesnik/dev/repos/DLP/main/src/\all_Debug_Win32.det";Verbosity=normal;ShowCommandLine=no /ds
I don't get such formating. Lines are not indexed and it is very hard to understand which project a processed source file belongs to:
FileTypeDetector_vs2019.vcxproj -> C:\Users\sergey.kolesnik\dev\repos\DLP\main\src\Out_2019\x86\Debug\FileTypeDetecto
r\FileTypeDetector.lib
ElasticClient_vs2019.vcxproj -> C:\Users\sergey.kolesnik\dev\repos\DLP\main\src\Out_2019\x86\Debug\ElasticClient\Elas
ticClient.lib
RemoteInstall_vs2019.vcxproj -> C:\Users\sergey.kolesnik\dev\repos\DLP\main\src\Out_2019\x86\Debug\RemoteInstall\Remo
teInstall.lib
TextUtils_vs2019.vcxproj -> C:\Users\sergey.kolesnik\dev\repos\DLP\main\src\Out_2019\x86\Debug\TextUtils\TextUtils.li
b
AlertSenderSmtp.cpp
FontGetter.cpp
PdfShadower.cpp
PrinterEnumCallbacks.cpp
PrinterHlp.cpp
EventLog.cpp
PrinterHook.cpp
netresident.cpp
AuditRecord.cpp
PrinterNameCache.cpp
RemoteDataProcess.cpp
PrinterProcessor.cpp
hooks_srv_utils.cpp
hooks_utils.cpp
ShadowPdfMerger.cpp
iphone_cfbinary.cpp
ClipboardData.cpp
settings.cpp
ClipboardDevice.cpp
ClipboardResCache.cpp
Are there any CLI parameters for MSBuild.exe that would make the logging output like when a Solution is built with Visual Studio?
Is there an option to print a list of failed projects at the end?

Answer 1

The 'index' is a 'project key'. Project keys are generated per build and within a build are unique per project. (See related "Do the 1>, 2>, 3> symbols in msbuild output stand for threads?")
There doesn't seem to be a documented switch to enable showing the project keys.
However I did some quick tests that are summarized in the following table:
Cmd
OS
Project Ids in the Log?
MSBuild version
msbuild
Windows
No
17.3
dotnet msbuild
Windows
Yes
17.3
msbuild
macOS
Yes
16.10
dotnet msbuild
macOS
Yes
16.10
This shows that a work-around is to run MSBuild via the dotnet command. This doesn't require any changes in your code. The dotnet tool is just a host for the MSBuild engine. The same is true of Visual Studio (devenv.exe). As hosts for MSBuild, dotnet and devenv are enabling the Project key in the logging.
MSBuild will list all warnings and errors at the end of the log but there is no option to generate a list of the failed projects.
The summary line that appears in the Visual Studio build output (like the following example) is generated by Visual Studio and doesn't come from MSBuild.
========== Build: 2 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========