Is it possible to prevent MSBuild printing colourized output - msbuild

I've got my windows shell configured as displaying black text on a white background. This makes it almost impossible to read the default msbuild output due to the very pale colours (especially the yellow warnings).
Therefore I'd like to try one of the following, but I can't work out if it is possible.
I'd like to set a global setting to permanently turn off colourized output in msbuild; or
If (1) isn't possible is it possible to turn this output per-invocation (e.g. with command line arguments).
Does anyone know how to do one of the above?

In MSBuild 4.0 this is possible using the /consoleloggerparameters or /clp switch:
msbuild C:\some_path\your.sln /clp:disableconsolecolor
Alternatively, for previous MSBuild engines, this is possible using PowerShell:
Out-Host will display the default color:
Powershell -Command "msbuild C:\some_path\your.sln | out-host"
Write-Host will let you customize the colors:
Powershell -Command "msbuild C:\some_path\your.sln | write-host -foreground "white""

To completely disable colors use the /clp:disableconsolecolor option when invoking MSBuild.exe (for more information on the /clp option run MSBuild.exe /?).
Update as #KMoraz has commented, and updated his answer to, this only works with MSBuild 4.0 onwards.
If you want to disable color output you can also use the following (which will not work with MSBuild 4.0):
MSBuild.exe arguments > CON 2>&1
This got me curious ;-) so here is one more option that should work with all versions of MSBuild.exe and doesn't rely on CON redirection:
MSBuild.exe arguments 2>&1| findstr /r ".*"
Basically, what happens is that all lines of output are piped through findstr.exe since that uses a pattern to match "everything", all lines are simply output again, but loosing their attributes (color) information. In my tests the 2>&1 (redirect stderr to stdout) was not really necessary, as it looks MSBuild doesn't output any (colored) messages to stderr, but I added it for good measure.

Related

IntelliJ: Dynamically updated file header

By default, IntelliJ Idea will insert (something like) the following as the header of a new source file:
/**
* Created by JohnDoe on 2016-04-27.
*/
The corresponding template is:
/**
* Created by ${USER} on ${DATE}.
*/
Is it possible to update this template so that it inserts the last date of modification when the file is changed? For example:
/**
* Created by JohnDoe on 2016-03-27.
* Last modified by JaneDoe on 2016-04-27
*/
It is not supported out of the box. I suggest you do not include information about author and last edit/create time in file at all.
The reason is that your version control system (Git, SVN) contains the same information automatically. So the manual labelling is just duplicate of already existing info, but is only more error prone and needs to be manually updated.
Here's a working solution similar to what I'm using. Tested on mac os.
Create a bash script which will replace first occurrence of Last modified by JaneDoe on $DATE only if the exact value is not contained in the file:
#!/bin/bash
FILE=src/java/test/Test.java
DATE=`date '+%Y-%m-%d'`
PREFIX="Last modified by JaneDoe on "
STRING="$PREFIX.*$"
SUBSTITUTE="$PREFIX$DATE"
if ! grep -q "$SUBSTITUTE" "$FILE"; then
sed -i '' "1,/$(echo "$STRING")/ s/$(echo "$STRING")/$(echo "$SUBSTITUTE")/" $FILE
fi
Install File Watchers plugin.
Create a file watcher with appropriate scope (it may be this single file or any other scope, so that any change in project's source code will update modified date or version etc.) and put a path to your bash script into Program field.
Now every time the file changes the date will update. If you want to update date for each file separately, an argument $FilePath$ should be passed to the script.
This might have been just a comment to #oleg-mikhailov excellent idea, but the code snippet won't fit. Basically, I just tweaked his solution.
I needed a slightly different syntax but that's not the issue. The issue was that when the script ran automatically upon file save using the File Watchers plugin, if ran on a file which doesn't include PREFIX it would run over and over for ever.
I presume the that the issue is with the plugin itself, as it didn't happen when run from the shell, but I'm not sure why it happened.
Anyway, I ended up running the following script (as I said only a slight change with respect to the original). The new script also raises an error if the the prefix doesn't exist. For me this is a feature as Pycharm prompts me with the error, and I can fix the file.
Tested with PyCharm 2021.2.3 on macOS 11.6.
#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
DATE=`date '+%Y-%m-%d'`
PREFIX="last_modified_date: "
STRING="$PREFIX.*$"
SUBSTITUTE="$PREFIX$DATE"
if ! grep -q "$SUBSTITUTE" "$FILE"; then
if grep -q "$PREFIX" "$FILE"; then
sed -i '' "s/$(echo "$STRING")/$(echo "$SUBSTITUTE")/" $FILE
else
echo "Error!"
echo "'$PREFIX' doesn't appear in $FILE"
exit 1
fi
fi
PHPStorm has not a "hook" for launching task after detect a change in file (just for uploading in server yes). Code templating is based on the creation of file not change.
The behaviour you want (automatic change file after manual change file) can be useful for lot of things but it's circular headhache for editor. Because if you change a file it must change file (and if a file is change ? it change file ?).
However, You can, perhaps, "enable Live Templates" when you launch a "reformat code" which able to rewrite your begin template code that way rewrite date modification.
Other solution is that use a tools with as grunt but I don't know if manage php file.

colorizing golang test run output

I like it when terminal/console test runs actually show their output in either red or green text. It seems like a lot of the testing libraries available for Go have this. However, I'd like to just use the default testing package that comes with Go. Is there a way to colorize it's output with red and green?
You can use grc, a generic colourizer, to colourize anything.
On Debian/Ubuntu, install with apt-get install grc. On a Mac with , brew install grc.
Create a config directory in your home directory:
mkdir ~/.grc
Then create your personal grc config in ~/.grc/grc.conf:
# Go
\bgo.* test\b
conf.gotest
Then create a Go test colourization config in ~/.grc/conf.gotest, such as:
regexp==== RUN .*
colour=blue
-
regexp=--- PASS: .*
colour=green
-
regexp=^PASS$
colour=green
-
regexp=^(ok|\?) .*
colour=magenta
-
regexp=--- FAIL: .*
colour=red
-
regexp=[^\s]+\.go(:\d+)?
colour=cyan
Now you can run Go tests with:
grc go test -v ./..
Sample output:
To avoid typing grc all the time, add an alias to your shell (if using Bash, either ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile or both, depending on your OS):
alias go=grc go
Now you get colourization simply by running:
go test -v ./..
You can create a wrapper shell script for this and color it using color escape sequence. Here's a simple example on Linux (I'm not sure how this would look on windows, but I guess there is a way.. :) )
go test -v . | sed ''/PASS/s//$(printf "\033[32mPASS\033[0m")/'' | sed ''/FAIL/s//$(printf "\033[31mFAIL\033[0m")/''
There's also a tool called richgo that does exactly this, in a user-friendly way.
You would still need a library to add color escape code like:
for Windows: mattn/go-colorable or shiena/ansicolor
for Unix or Windows: fatih/color or kortschak/ct
for Unix or Windows: logrusorgru/aurora (mentioned by Ivan Black in the comments)
From there, you specify what you want to color (StdOut or StdErr, like in this example)
rakyll/gotest (screenshot) is a binary that does this.
Example:
$ gotest -v github.com/rakyll/hey
Emoji
You can use colors for text as others mentioned in their answers to have colorful text with a color code or using a third-party library.
But you can use emojis instead! for example, you can use⚠️ for warning messages and 🛑 for error messages.
Or simply use these notebooks as a color:
📕: error message
📙: warning message
📗: ok status message
📘: action message
📓: canceled status message
📔: Or anything you like and want to recognize immediately by color
🎁 Bonus:
This method also helps you to quickly scan and find logs directly in the source code.
But some distributions of Linux default emoji font are not colorful by default and you may want to make them colorful, first.
BoltDB has some test methods that look like this:
func assert(tb testing.TB, condition bool, msg string, v ...interface{}) {
if !condition {
_, file, line, _ := runtime.Caller(1)
fmt.Printf("\033[31m%s:%d: "+msg+"\033[39m\n\n", append([]interface{}{filepath.Base(file), line}, v...)...)
tb.FailNow()
}
}
Here are the rest. I added the green dots here.

Zsh trouble when using echo with color/formatting characters

I'm just switch to zsh and now adapting the alias in which was printing some text (in color) along with a command.
I have been trying to use the $fg array var, but there is a side effect, all the command is printed before being executed.
The same occur if i'm just testing a echo with a color code in the terminal:
echo $fg_bold[blue] "test"
]2;echo "test" test #the test is in the right color
Why the command print itself before to do what it's supposed to do ? (I precise this doesn't happen when just printing whithout any wariable command)
Have I to set a specific option to zsh, use echo with a special parameter to get ride of that?
Execute the command first (keep its output somewhere), and then issue echo. The easiest way I can think of doing that would be:
echo $fg[red] `ls`
Edit: Ok, so your trouble is some trash before the actual output of echo. You have some funny configuration that is causing you trouble.
What to do (other than inspecting your configuration):
start a shell with zsh -f (it will skip any configuration), and then re-try the echo command: autoload colors; colors; echo $fg_bold[red] foo (this should show you that the problem is in your configuration).
Most likely your configuration defines a precmd function that gets executed before every command (which is failing in some way). Try which precmd. If that is not defined, try echo $precmd_functions (precmd_functions is an array of functions that get executed before every command). Knowing which is the code being executed would help you search for it in your configuration (which I assume you just took from someone else).
If I had to guess, I'd say you are using oh-my-zsh without knowing exactly what you turned on (which is an endless source of troubles like this).
I don't replicate your issue, which I think indicates that it's either an option (that I've set), or it's a zsh version issue:
$ echo $fg_bold[red] test
test
Because I can't replicate it, I'm sure there's an option to stop it happening for you. I do not know what that option is (I'm using heavily modified oh-my-zsh, and still haven't finished learning what all the zsh options do or are).
My suggestions:
You could try using print:
$ print $fg_bold[red] test
test
The print builtin has many more options than echo (see man zshbuiltins).
You should also:
Check what version zsh you're using.
Check what options (setopt) are enabled.
Check your ~/.zshrc (and other loaded files) to see what, if any, options and functions are being run.
This question may suggest checking what TERM you're using, but reading your question it sounds like you're only seeing this behaviour (echoing of the command after entry) when you're using aliases...?

How to provide vsdbcmd deploy command line target dbschema sql command variables?

The Visual Studio (2010) gui provides options for specifying second command variable file for target. I however cant find this option for the command line implementation - vsdbcmd.exe.
Running vsdbcmd deploy for dbschema to dbschema with only source model command variables given results that objects that implement the variables are treated as having changes. Resulting in incorrect(improper) update script.
The command i use currently:
vsdbcmd.exe /a:deploy /dd:- /dsp:sql /model:Source.dbschema /targetmodelfile:Target.dbschema /p:SqlCommandVariablesFile=Database.sqlcmdvars /manifest:Database.deploymanifest /DeploymentScriptFile:UpdateScript.sql /p:TargetDatabase="DatabaseName"
What im looking for is the /p:TargetSqlCommandVariablesFile, if such thing exists ...
The result script is the same as running so GUI compare without specifying the sqlcmd vars for target
I found what looks like full documentation for VSDBCMD.EXE at this link.
I think you may be looking for something like:
/p:SqlCommandVariablesFile=Filepath
In the end i found no info on the possibility to do what I required - checked vsdbcmd libs with IL spy for hidden parameters - didn't find any.
Reached my goal by parsing the dbschema files for both target and current and parsing the cmd variable values directly into them - then doing the compare on modified dbschemas. This approach no longer allows to change sql cmd vars in resulting script (as the values are already baked into code), however this was deemed as acceptable loss.
Not the most beautiful solution but so far i have had no issues with it.

Why won't MSBuild build a project with a dot in the name?

The Story So Far
I've got a nice solution with a desktop application project, a few library projects, and a couple of development tools projects (also desktop applications). At the moment, my build server outputs all of the code into one OutputPath. So we end up with
drop-x.y.z\
Company.MainApplication.exe <-- main application
Company.MainApplicationCore.dll <-- libraries
Helper.exe <-- developer tools
Grapher.exe
Parser.exe
... <-- the rest of the output
But, we're growing up and people outside of our team want access to our tools. So I want to organize the output. I decided that what we would want is a different OutputPath per executable project
drop-x.y.z\
Company.MainApplication\
Company.MainApplication.exe <-- main application
Company.MainApplicationCore.dll <-- libraries
... <-- application specific output
Helper\
Helper.exe <-- developer tools
... <-- tool specific output
Grapher\
Grapher.exe
...
Parser\
Parser.exe
...
What I Did
I found this simple command. I like it because it retains all the Solution working-dir context that makes msbuild a pain.
msbuild /target:<ProjectName>
For example, from my solution root as a working directory, I would call
PS> msbuild /target:Helper /property:OutputPath="$pwd\out\Helper"
I'm testing this from PowerShell, so that $pwd resolves to the full path to my working directory, or the Solution root in this case. I get the output I desire.
However, when I run this command
PS> msbuild /target:Company.MainApplication /property:OutputPath="$pwd\out\Company.MainApplication"
I get the following error output (there's no more information, I ran with /verbosity:diagnostic)
The target "Company.MainApplication" does not exist in the project.
What I Need
The command fails on any project with a dot or dots in the name. I tried with many combinations of working directories and properties. I tried several ways of escaping the property values. I also tried running the command from a <Task> in a targets file.
I need to know either
A) How to fix this command to work property
B) How to achieve the same output with minimal friction
Try using an underscore as an escape character for the dot in the target parameter, e.g.
msbuild /target:Company_MainApplication /property:OutputPath="$pwd\out\Company.MainApplication"
Specify the target after the -target: switch in the format :. If the project name contains any of the characters %, $, #, ;, ., (, ), or ', replace them with an _ in the specified target name.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/how-to-build-specific-targets-in-solutions-by-using-msbuild-exe?view=vs-2019
Dan Nolan's answer and comments are correct. Just want to supplement the Microsoft documentation.
The /targets: switch is to identify a <Target to run in the project file. You need to supply your .csproj file as a an argument that is not prefixed by a /xx option marker.
You might also want to work based on the .sln file. In that case, you still dont specify the project in the .sln to build in this manner. I'll leave you to search up the correct syntax in case that's what you end up doing.