I have a solution with two default projects inside (VisualBasic console applications):
Solution1\
Solution1.sln
ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.vbproj
ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApplication2.vbproj
I have added a custom target to ConsoleApplication1:
...
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets" />
<Target Name="HelloWorld">
<Message Text="Hello Build!"></Message>
</Target>
<!-- To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it.
...
</Project>
I would like to set up a script to execute a normal build on both projects, then call my custom target.
According to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171486.aspx, I should be able to call the specific target with the following command (ignoring the initial build of the projects for now):
msbuild C:\Path\To\Solution1\Solution1.sln /t:ConsoleApplication1:HelloWorld
Instead, I get the following error message:
error MSB4057: The target "ConsoleApplication1:HelloWorld" does not exist in the project. [E:\Path\To\Solution1\Solution1.sln]
I presume I have the syntax incorrect, what would the correct syntax be to accomplish this?
The following commands work as expected:
msbuild C:\Path\To\Solution1\Solution1.sln
msbuild C:\Path\To\Solution1\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.vbproj /t:HelloWorld
Have you considered just adding your custom target action to the AfterBuild target in the desired msbuild proj file? It's a different approach, but would eliminate the need for the explicit invocation of the custom target and still be project file specific.
Related
I'm trying to get the Output folder of referenced project in my Wix Visual Studio project, using MsBuild task. But it is failing with following error:
C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(724,5):
error : The OutputPath property is not set for project
'ConsoleApplicatio n1.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you
have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for
this project. Configuration='Release' Platfo rm='x86'. You may be
seeing this message because you are trying to build a project without
a solution file, and have specified a non-default Configuration or
Plat form that doesn't exist for this project.
[C:\Users\fwaheed\Documents\Visual Studio
2015\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.cspro
j]
Following is the Target calling MsBuild task.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<MSBuild
Projects="#(ProjectReference)"
Targets="GetTargetPath"
BuildInParallel="false"
Condition="'%(Name)'=='ConsoleApplication1'" >
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="DependentAssemblies" />
</MSBuild>
</Target>
Please note that same target worked perfectly if it is CSharp project, but failing in Wix project.
Can someone guide how to get ReferencedProjects output dirs in Wix Projects?
Thanks
You can try to see how Wix does it for passing the reference values to candle on build. They're in the wix2010.targets or wix200x.targets file. Unfortunately I don't have the time to really dig into this stuff but the properties these tasks set should still exist to be used in your AfterBuild target.
Just search for "ResolveReferences" in one of those targets files.
You can also just try setting
<OutputPath>somepathhere</OutputPath>
in your csproj file since msbuild is complaining that the property isn't set.
I am facing an issue with MSBuild I can't overcome it by myself. As a result I rely on community's wisdom.
The real situation I'm having troubles with
I have a soluiton file containing several projects with dependencies to other projects in same solution. I'd like to append a custom target to one of the project's csproj file and build it from the command line. It will allow me to make all the necessary output binaries for this project for further processing during the building of the custom target. But the main thing is that I can't figure out how to do it, googling doesn't help either.
Simplification
To make thing simplier I decided to make a new C# console project, add a simple custom target to the project's file and try to make it build. Still no success! Here what I've done so far:
Created a solution app with a default console project coreapp. This gaves me at least two files:
app.sln
coreapp\coreapp.csproj
Modified coreapp.csproj with addition of my custom target inside of the Project tag
<Target Name="SampleTarget">
<Message Text="This is a SampleTarget" />
</Target>
Run on the command line the following command
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\framework\v3.5\msbuild.exe app.sln /t:coreapp:SampleTarget
or even
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\framework\v3.5\msbuild.exe app.sln /t:coreapp.csproj:SampleTarget
Results
No luck, facing the error
MSB4057: The target "coreapp.csproj:SampleTarget" does not exist in the project.
I suspect that MSBuild thinks somehting fundamentally different from what I want it to think...
BEsides that, I also tried to set on the same command line the environment variable MSBuildEmitSolution=1 to force msbuild dump a temporary solution file it creates while processing the solution. In this file, indeed, no such target. However I guess it isn't the reason because I asked msbuild to build coreapp.proj where target SampleTarget really resides.
The question is how to build SampleTarget in this simplified scenario using solution file since potencially it can contain dependencies for the project containing this SampleTarget target?
I'd be greatful for any sort of help or firection for further investigation!
Instead of inserting a custom target in your project file, you could try creating a new standalone msbuild file, which would:
build the solution file (which builds projects)
defines your extra target
Call it app-custom-Debug.msbuild , for example.
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WorkingFolder>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)</WorkingFolder>
<Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
<SolutionFile>app.sln</SolutionFile>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="Compile" />
<Target Name="Compile">
<Message Text="=== COMPILING $(Configuration) configuration ===" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(SolutionFile)"
Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="SampleTarget">
<Message Text="This is a SampleTarget" />
</Target>
</Project>
Then you execute:
msbuild.exe app-custom-Debug.msbuild /t:SampleTarget
One option is to tie your SampleTarget to the standard Build targets via overriding the appropriate DependsOn property. In this case you could tell BeforeBuild that it DependsOn SampleTarget or you do the same thing with AfterBuild. This will ensure that MSBuild processes your target prior to the standard target indicated.
I want to inhibit the building of certain projects within a solution from building (within a TeamCity Build Configuration in order to optimize the speed of my Commit Build feedback if you must know).
I'm aware of the Solution Configurations mechanism but don't want to have to force lots of .sln files to end up with every permutation of things I want to be able to switch off. I have Convention based rule where I want to say "If I'm doing the Commit Build, I dont want to do the final installer packaging". (And I don't want to break it out into a separate solution).
I'd prefer not to use a solution involving find and replace in the .sln file or in a .proj file created via [MsBuildEmitSolution][1]. I'm aware of questions here which cover the out of the box solution and this slightly related question.
I see MSBuild /v:diag is saying:
2>Target "Build" in file "Z.sln.metaproj" from project "Z.sln" (entry point):
Using "MSBuild" task from assembly "Microsoft.Build.Tasks.v4.0, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a".
Task "MSBuild"
Global Properties:
BuildingSolutionFile=true
CurrentSolutionConfigurationContents=<SolutionConfiguration>
<ProjectConfiguration Project="{C83D035D-169B-4023-9BEE-1790C9FE22AB}" AbsolutePath="X.csproj" BuildProjectInSolution="True">Debug|AnyCPU</ProjectConfiguration>
<ProjectConfiguration Project="{15E7887D-F1DB-4D85-8454-E4EF5CBDE6D5}" AbsolutePath="Y.csproj" BuildProjectInSolution="True">Debug|AnyCPU</ProjectConfiguration>
</SolutionConfiguration>
So the question is:
Is there a neat way of me getting to do an XPath replace or similar to have the effect of changing BuildProjectInSolution="True" to BuildProjectInSolution="False" for Project Y above
Failing that, is there a relatively simple edit I can do within a .ccproj (An Azure 1.4 Package) or a .csproj (a general project) file to cause the effects (including triggering of dependent projects) of the project being enabled within a commandline msbuild Z.sln solution build to be nullified?
Not sure it qualifies as neat, but you can set CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets to import an msbuild file to over-ride the BuildDependsOn property, pointing it to your own custom build task. Basically, by setting CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets you get msbuild to import an msbuild file containing the following:
<PropertyGroup>
<OldBuildDependsOn>$(BuildDependsOn)</OldBuildDependsOn>
<BuildDependsOn>MyBuild</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="OldBuild" DependsOnTargets="$(OldBuildDependsOn)" />
<Target Name="MyBuild">
<CallTarget Targets="OldBuild" Condition="<IfIWantThis>" />
</Target>
Edit
You can use the following MyBuild target to Include/Exclude projects based on regular expressions passed in as IncludeInBuild and ExcludeFromBuild properties. (If you want complex regexes, you may fall foul of MSBuild special character escaping, but this works well enough for simple matching)
> msbuild /p:ExcludeFromBuild="Tests|Install|Azure"
<Target Name="MyBuild">
<CallTarget Targets="OldBuild" Condition="('$(IncludeInBuild)'=='' OR
'$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch($(MSBuildProjectFullPath),
$(IncludeInBuild),
System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))'=='True') AND
('$(ExcludeFromBuild)'=='' OR
'$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch($(MSBuildProjectFullPath),
$(ExcludeFromBuild),
System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))'=='False')" />
</Target>
You could always pass the particular projects you want to build as parameters to the MSBuild.
The MSBuild command line would look like this:
MSBuild /t:<Project Name>:Rebuild;<Another Project Name>:Rebuild
In TeamCity, you would put <Project Name>:<Target Action> in the target field in the MSBuild runner.
I add a system parameter under Parameters
Name: system.ExcludeFromBuild
Kind: System property (system.)
Value: path to your csproj
I have an MSBuild file that manipulates the AssemblyInfo file before the application is compiled. At the end of the build, it restores the AssemblyInfo file. It does this by backing up the file, manipulating it, and then after build time, restoring the file.
This works fairly well except when an error occurs during the build. It then does not restore the original file. Is there a way I can tell MSBuild to execute a target at the end of a build no matter if it succeeded or failed?
Based on your last comment to the original question I would take another approach, and forget the approach you are currently taking. You should know that your version info doesn't have to be in the AssemblyInfo.cs file. It can be in any code file, just as long as you only have attributes AssemblyVersion and AssemblyFileVersion defined once each. With that being said what I would do is follow these steps:
Remove AssemblyVersion & AssemblyFileVersion from AssemblyInfo.cs
Create a new file, name it whatever you want want in my case I put it at Properties\VersionInfo.cs. Do not add this file to the project.
Edit the project file to include that file into the list of file to be compiled only when you want it
Let's expand a bit on #3. When you build a .NET project, the project itself is an MSBuild file. Inside that file you will find an item declared Compile. This is the list of files that will be sent to the compiler to be compiled. You can dynamically include/exclude files from that list. In you case you want to include the VersionInfo.cs file only if you are building on the build server (or whatever other condition you define). For this example I defined that condition to be if the project was building in Release mode. So for Release mode VersionInfo.cs would be sent to the compiler, and for other builds not. Here are the contents of VersionInfo.cs
VersionInfo.cs
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("1.2.3.4")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersion("1.2.3.4")]
In order to hook this into the build process you have to edit the project file. In that file you will find an element (maybe more than 1 depending on project type). You should add a target similar to the following there.
<Target Name="BeforeCompile">
<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='Release' ">
<Compile Include="Properties\VersionInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Here what I've done here is to define a target, BeforeCompile, which is a well-known target that you can override. See this MSDN article about other similar targets. Basically this is a target which will always be called before the compiler is invoked. In this target I add the VersionInfo.cs to the Compile item only if the Configuration property is set to release. You could define that property to be whatever you wanted. For instance if you have TFS as your build server then it could be,
<Target Name="BeforeCompile">
<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)'!='' ">
<Compile Include="Properties\VersionInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Because we know that TeamFoundationServerUrl is only defined when building through TFS.
If you are building form the command line then something like this
<Target Name="BeforeCompile">
<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(IncludeVersionInfo)'=='true' ">
<Compile Include="Properties\VersionInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
And when you build the project just do msbuild.exe YourProject.proj /p:IncludeVersion=true. Note: this will not work when building a solution.
What about changing the problem:
Add a "template" AssemblyInfo.cs.template to version control that represents your "ideal" AssemblyInfo.cs with regex hooks in there
Before build, copy the template to the real and apply your regexes
Add some kind of subversion ignore for AssemblyInfo.cs (I'm no svn expert, but I'm pretty sure there is a way you can tell it to ignore certain files)
In the event that your devs need to add some kind of customization that would normally appear in an AssemblyInfo.cs (eg InternalsVisibleTo), then get them to add it to a different .cs file that IS checked in.
As a further refinement, combine Sayed's solution with mine and remove version info stuff from the actual AssemblyInfo.cs and have a VersionInfo.cs.template that is checked in, that creates a VersionInfo.cs in BeforeBuild.
I never used it, but from the documentation it seems that the OnError Element is useful to what you're trying to achieve.
Causes one or more targets to execute,
if the ContinueOnError attribute is
false for a failed task.
I need a set of tasks that need to be executed exactly once for the entire solution. This will run tasks that will modify each project to run a separate set of tasks for each project. We had done this earlier using a separate project to the solution which had the solution level tasks, but we want to move away from that. Has anyone done this or does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement this?
Since Solution files are not in MSBuild format they are not easily extended or customized. If you want more control over the build process you would have to create a "driver" msbuild file which would replace your solution file. Inside this driver file you would build all the projects that you needed and perform some additional tasks. You would do this using the MSBuild task. Here is a sample showing how to build more than 1 project.
<Project ...>
<ItemGroup>
<Projects Include="proj01.csproj"/>
<Projects Include="proj02.csproj"/>
<Projects Include="proj03.csproj"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="BuildAll">
<MSBuild Projects="#(Projects)" BuildInParallel="true" />
</Target>
</Project>
So in your case you would just execute the tasks before you build the projects. Also note that I specified the value true for the BuildInParallel indicating that MSBuild can try and build more than one project at once.
An alternative solution is to have a single target that dispatches to an MSBuild invoked target with as many Global properties removed as possible. My team have a target in the InitialTargets of a Directory.Build.props Import'ed props file - something like:
<Target Name="Prebuild">
<MSBuild Projects="$(MSBuildThisFileFullPath)"
Targets="PrebuildWorker"
RemoveProperties="Configuration;Platform;TargetFramework;BuildProjectReferences" />
</Target>
Since MSBuild appears to synchronize parallel builds on the {project file, global properties, target} set, then by removing all of the properties you can synchronize the build and run it once for all projects being built. The downside: you have to maintain the RemoveProperties attribute - MSBuild doesn't have a way to remove all global properties. If something in the build issues a new MSBuild task with a custom property specified, then you'll get a second instance of the Target invoked.
And - of course - your build will be synchronized on this target. You could try hooking the target up by setting, say, CompileDependsOn to depend on the Prebuild target, to allow independent progress in the build. But to have the target run early and ubiquitously using InitialTargets seems like the better option.