I'm trying to make Visual Studio do my entire build, currently I've got my extra build steps written in nant. But it's not ideal having to run ant separately.
I'm trying to run a jar file named plovr as part of my node application, although at the moment publish keeps failing on the line I've added to my build with exit code 1. This is the code I'm trying at the end of my build file within the <Project></Projet> tags.
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command="java -jar $(Plovr) build $(PlovrConfig)" />
</Target>
I've got these properties setup earlier in the file
<Plovr>dependencies\plovr.jar</Plovr>
<PlovrConfig>dependencies\plovr-config.js</PlovrConfig>
How can I get msbuild to run the plovr.jar?
If you put in the full path to java.exe.....the EXEC command should work.
It just does a command line call....at the end of the day.
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe" -jar $(Plovr) build $(PlovrConfig)" />
</Target>
Also note the use of " .. to delimit a quote...
You can also put in some Message's to make sure you have what you think you have:
<Message Text="Plovr: $(Plovr)"/>
<Message Text="PlovrConfig: $(PlovrConfig)"/>
Related
I am using following code in 2 our of 3 projects from the solution default target is set to PublishMe
<Target Name="PublishMe" DependsOnTargets="PipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder">
<Error Condition="'$(PublishDestination)'==''" Text="The PublishDestination property must be set to the intended publishing destination." />
<MakeDir Condition="!Exists($(PublishDestination))" Directories="$(PublishDestination)" />
<ItemGroup>
<PublishFiles Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(PublishFiles)" DestinationFiles="#(PublishFiles->'$(PublishDestination)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" SkipUnchangedFiles="True" />
</Target>
If I run msbuild it builds and publishes just as expected, the problem is that I can't build it from VS anymore, I am having error of missing projectname.dll
Is there way I can change default build target if it is msbuild doing build?
I tried to /t:ProjectName:target;ProjectName2:target, but it isn't working with custom targets for some reason.
Is there way I can specify param from msbuild console to run PublishMe target and if not present run simple build?
You can usefollowing command
msbuild projectname /t:targetname.
Also please check the below link for more info
Building a solution file using msbuild
I'm currently writing an msbuild script to build a solution I've been working on, as well as run its tests. On my development machine, this works as expected. However, when I try to run the same build script on our build server, I get several failures. I've tracked the source of the problem down to the fact that my build script appears to be trying to run the .exe file associated with my application. This line during the script execution tipped me off, since it doesn't run that command on my dev box:
MSIAuthoring:
Building MSI
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test Build\BuildArtifacts\MsiBuildTool.exe" "/MBSBUILD:MsiBuildTool"
I'm fairly new to build scripting, but my understanding is that the build script shouldn't be trying to run my program unless I explicitly tell it to do so. Does anyone know what might be causing this?
For reference, here is my build script:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="RunTests"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<BuildArtifactsDir Include="BuildArtifacts\"/>
<SolutionFile Include="MsiBuildTool.sln"/>
<NUnitConsole Include="C:\Program Files (x86)\NUnit 2.6.4\bin\nunit-console.exe"/>
<UnitTestsDll Include="BuildArtifacts\MsiBuildToolUnitTests.dll"/>
<TestResultsPath Include="BuildArtifacts\TestResults.xml"/>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Release</Configuration>
<Platform Condition="'$(Platform)' == ''">Any CPU</Platform>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Init" DependsOnTargets="Clean">
<MakeDir Directories="#(BuildArtifactsDir)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<RemoveDir Directories="#(BuildArtifactsDir)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name ="Compile" DependsOnTargets="Init">
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionFile)"
Targets ="Build"
Properties ="OutDir=%(BuildArtifactsDir.FullPath);Configuration=$(Configuration);Platform=$(Platform)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="RunTests" DependsOnTargets="Compile">
<Exec Command='"#(NUnitConsole)" #(UnitTestsDll) /xml=#(TestResultsPath)'/>
</Target>
</Project>
Update:
After some digging through the output, I found that "MSIAuthoring" step was the result of the Wix# library that I'm using. As described by this thread: https://wixsharp.codeplex.com/discussions/644609#
I disabled the MSIAuthoring step by removing this line in my .csproj files:
<Import Project="..\packages\WixSharp.1.0.22.3\build\WixSharp.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\WixSharp.1.0.22.3\build\WixSharp.targets')" />
You're building solution file, thus MSBuild will generate msbuild-xml script first and then will build it. To find why it's being called on build machine but not on your dev machine - follow this advice and obtain generated MSBuild scripts from your dev environment and your build server. Then compare it.
Also enable diagnostic logging (/verbosity:diag in the command line) as Lex Li advised, and you'll see detailed decisions why each target being run or not - grep logs for something like "Conditions A, B, C on target BuildMSI evaluated to False" and this will show you the difference between environments.
It might be some type of post-build script on one of the projects which builds MSI only if it's being run not on dev environment - check actual build script to find where it comes from. Also check that it's really related to your build script, and it's not an extra build step in your Jenkins build configuration.
I have a project which has some post build events that do some copying around for other projects. I unfortunately cannot change that, and have been asked to write a build script for use on a CI server.
Problem is that the post build steps run off the debug/release bin folders and I compile through the build script to a different folder. So one solution would be to let the project build as is, and then manually copy all files from the bin folders to the output folder I am using. However that feels like a bit of a hack, so I was wondering if there is a way for an MSBuild task to tell the solution it is building to ignore PostBuild events, I believe you could set a property PostBuildEvent='' but it didnt seem to stop them from happening...
Here is an example of the build script target:
<Target Name="Compile" DependsOnTargets="Clean;">
<MSBuild Projects="$(SourceDirectory)\SomeSolution.sln"
Properties="Configuration=Release; OutputPath=$(CompilationDirectory); PostBuildEvent=''" />
</Target>
Anyone had to do anything similar before?
To disable all PostBuildEvents, set the CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets to C:\PostBuild.config (or whatever you name the file) and have PostBuild.config to be:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="PostBuildEvent"/>
</Project>
Add /p:CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets="C:\PostBuild.config" to your msbuild command line
Or update your MsBuild task properties:
<MsBuild Projects="$(ProjectTobuild)" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration);Platform=$(Platform);CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets='C:\PostBuild.config'" Targets="Build"/>
To disable PostBuildEvents at project level for MSBuild, simply put these codes inside .csproj:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<PostBuildEvent Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'false' Or '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != 'true'"></PostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
I am executing MSBuild from a batch file. The MSBuild script is in a different directory than the directory I want MSBuild to consider the working directory when running the script. When invoking MSBuild.exe, how do I change its working directory?
Edit: More details
Let's say I have an MSBuild script located on some other server. I want to run a command thusly:
msbuild.exe \\my_server\c$\My\Path\To\Scripts\TestScript.msbuild
I run that command with my command prompt at c:\temp. Let's say my TestScript.msbuild has a task to create a file. The file has no path just a filename. I would expect that the file gets created inside c:\temp. But it doesn't it gets created next to the msbuild file that is sitting on the server. This is the behavior I want to change.
Edit #2
Here is the script I'm using in my test:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Files Include="HelloWorld.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="TouchFiles">
<Touch Files="#(Files)" AlwaysCreate="True" />
</Target>
</Project>
I am going into a command shell CDing into c:\temp and then executing the script. With or without the /p:OutDir switch that #Nick Nieslanik mentions, the HelloWorld.txt file appears in the folder where the *.msbuild file is and not c:\temp.
I ran across this while looking for a solution to my problem. Here's my solution (build script):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Default">
<Exec Command="build.bat" WorkingDirectory="..\[your dir]\" />
</Target>
</Project>
I believe that's more what you were originally looking for?
My problem was that my batch file called another that it expected to be in the same directory, but since my ms build script was being run elsewhere, the batch file failed to find the second batch file.
#jkohlhepp - I see now. You are doing the opposite of what I described in my comment to some degree.
MSBuild common targets use the MSBuildProjectDirectory to determine the output folder unless you override that. So in your case, you could run
msbuild.exe \\my_server\c$\My\Pat\To\Scripts\TestScript.msbuild /p:OutDir=c:\temp
to force the output to be dropped in that location.
EDIT:
Given the project file above, you'd need to edit it to do something like the following for this to work:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutDir Condition=" '$(OutDir)' == '' ">bin\debug\</OutDir>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- Without prefacing files with paths, they are assumed relative to the proj file -->
<FilesToCreate Include="$(OutDir)HelloWorld.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="TouchFiles">
<Touch Files="#(FilesToCreate)" AlwaysCreate="True" />
</Target>
</Project>
In current versions of MSBuild the well-known property MSBuildStartupDirectory can be used in the msbuild file to retrieve the absolute path of the folder where MSBuild is called.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/msbuild-reserved-and-well-known-properties?view=vs-2019
This option perhaps did not exist in msbuild around the time when the question was asked. I didn't want to spend too much time investigating it.
I need to call exec and build a wix setup project.
Currently I have the following in my TFSbuild.proj
<PropertyGroup>
<WebRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\_PublishedWebsites\Web</WebRoot>
<DBRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\Database</DBRoot>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<Msbuildexe>"msbuild"</Msbuildexe>
<Configuration>"/p:Configuration:"Release""</Configuration>
<DefineConstants>" /p:DefineConstants:"WebRoot=$(WebRoot);DBRoot=$(DBRoot)""</DefineConstants>
<WixSolution>"$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Setup\Setup.sln"</WixSolution>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Bulding setup solution" />
<Message Text="$(Msbuildexe) $(Configuration) $(DefineConstants) $(WixSolution)" />
<Exec Command="$(Msbuildexe) $(Configuration) $(DefineConstants) $(WixSolution)" />
I've tried to simply as much as possible so I don't get confused where the " are meant to be. When I run this the debug message (2nd last command) outputs
"msbuild"
"/p:Configuration:"Release"" "
/p:DefineConstants:"WebRoot=\server\drops\app\Installer Build\Latest\x86\Release_PublishedWebsites\Web;DBRoot=\server\drops\app\Installer Build\Latest\x86\Release\Database""
"f:\builds\app\Installer Build\BuildType\Setup\Setup.sln"
And I get the following error in the log
'"msbuild"' is not recognized as an
internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
f:\builds\app\Installer
Build\BuildType\TFSBuild.proj(538,5):
error MSB3073: The command ""msbuild"
"/p:Configuration:"Release"" "
/p:DefineConstants:"WebRoot=\server\drops\app\Installer Build\Latest\x86\Release_PublishedWebsites\Web;DBRoot=\server\drops\app\Installer Build\Latest\x86\Release\Database""
"f:\builds\app\Installer
Build\BuildType\Setup\Setup.sln""
exited with code 9009.
I'm not sure if this is being caused by not being able to call the msbuild command from the command line or a " issue. If it is because I can't call msbuild from the command line like this how would I go about referencing it, is there a property that points to it?
To start with, you don't need most of the quotes, especially if the paths you are using don't contain spaces, but I'd trim it down to this, allowing for spaces in the paths for $(WebRoot), $(DbRoot) and $(MSBuildProjectDirectory):
<PropertyGroup>
<WebRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\_PublishedWebsites\Web</WebRoot>
<DBRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\Database</DBRoot>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<MsbuildExe>{still-needs-a-path-to}\msbuild</MsbuildExe>
<Configuration>/p:Configuration:Release</Configuration>
<DefineConstants>/p:DefineConstants:"WebRoot=$(WebRoot);DBRoot=$(DBRoot)"</DefineConstants>
<WixSolution>"$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Setup\Setup.sln"</WixSolution>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message
Text="Bulding setup solution"
/>
<Message
Text="$(MsbuildExe) $(Configuration) $(DefineConstants) $(WixSolution)"
/>
<Exec
Command="$(MsbuildExe) $(Configuration) $(DefineConstants) $(WixSolution)"
/>
However, you still won't be able to execute MSBuild with this, since the path to MSBuild isn't specified. It is typically found in the $(WINDIR)\Framework\Microsoft.Net\v4.0.30319 folder. There are a few ways to get this, either encode it directly, rely on an environment variable (that has to be set up somehow), use the predefined $(MSBuildBinPath), or extract it from the registry using the MSBuild registry syntax, which would look like this:
$(Registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\4.0\MSBuildToolsPath)
However, it isn't clear why you are running MSBuild using Exec rather than just using the MSBuild task. Change the line with Exec to this:
<MSBuild
Project="$(WixSolution)"
Properties="$(DefineConstants)"
/>
removing your declaration for <Configuration> and changing <DefineConstants> to this:
<DefineConstants>Configuration=$(Configuration);WebRoot=$(WebRoot);DBRoot=$(DBRoot)</DefineConstants>
Following up on my comment I'd suggest you try using the MSBuild Task instead of Exec:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="BuildWiXSolution">
<!-- Include the custom build targets installed with WiX -->
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Wix\Wix.targets"/>
<PropertyGroup>
<WebRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\_PublishedWebsites\Web</WebRoot>
<DBRoot>$(DropLocation)\Latest\x86\Release\Database</DBRoot>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<WiXSolution Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Setup\Setup.sln">
<Properties>Configuration=Release</Properties>
<AdditionalProperties>WebRoot=$(WebRoot);DBRoot=$(DBRoot)</AdditionalProperties>
</WiXSolution>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="BuildWiXSolution">
<MSBuild Projects="#(WiXSolution)" />
</Target>
</Project>
It allows you to keep configuration properties and additional properties together with your Wix solution.