Can MsBuild output dependency information similar to makedepend? - msbuild

Question

Is there a way to force MsBuild to output target dependency information in a structured form similar to makedepend? I need this at the solution level for a solution containing C# and C++ projects. I'm not picky about the output format.
I've considered that the C# dependencies can be determined by processing the .csproj files and building a DAG. Likewise I could run an open-source makedepend on the C++ sources and go from there. I'm really trying not to roll my own here -- this seems like something that MsBuild ought to be able to just do, if even for diagnostic purposes.

Answer 1

I solved this without too much yak shaving. Obviously MsBuild does have the dependency info during the build so my approach is to wrap the build with a custom target that writes the dependency to a .depends file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<!-- Write project dependencies to a .depends file, one line per dependency -->
<Target Name="OutputProjectDependencies">
<Delete Files="$(OutputPath)\$(TargetFileName).depends"/>
<WriteLinesToFile File="$(OutputPath)\$(TargetFileName).depends"
Lines="#(CscDependencies->'%(FullPath)');#(ReferencePath->'%(FullPath)');#(Content->'%(FullPath)');#(_NoneWithTargetPath->'%(FullPath)')"
Overwrite="false"
Encoding="UTF-8"/>
<WriteLinesToFile File="$(OutputPath)\$(TargetFileName).depends"
Lines="#(ClDependencies->'%(FullPath)')"
Overwrite="false"
Encoding="UTF-8"/>
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<CscDependencies Include="#(Compile);#(EmbeddedResource)"/>
<ClDependencies Include="#(ClCompile);#(ClInclude)"/>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>
$(BuildDependsOn);
OutputProjectDependencies;
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
This is not quite as robust as I'd like for C++ projects (it lacks included header and link library dependencies) but could probably be further enhanced. I believe this is a very solid approach for C# -- it includes referenced assemblies, embedded resources and content.