msbuild -p:outputdir=c:\mydir being ignored - msbuild

I'm running msbuild from the command line with the following:
msbuild mysolution.sln -p:outputdir=c:\mydir
When I run this, the outputdir is being ignored and the default specified in the csproj file is being used.
The MSDN doc for this tool says that I should be able to override the build directory using this parameter. What am I doing wrong?

You should use OutputPath and more important you should use the right syntax :
msbuild mysolution.sln /p:OutputPath=c:\mydir

Note that OutputPath is preferred over OutDir. The documentation used to be wrong about this, but I see that they've finally fixed it.
Beyond that, it's difficult to say exactly what the problem is, since you didn't show the exact path that you're passing as a parameter. There are two possible problems that I can imagine:
The OutputPath option specifies the path to the output directory relative to the project directory. That means you can't set it to a global path like C:\mydir. I assume it is unable to find the path you specified, and so it defaults to the one specified in your project file.
If the path that you're actually specifying as a parameter contains spaces, the command is likely to fail. I believe you need to wrap the path in quotes and append an extra backslash to the end of the path string.

I believe you should be using OutputPath.

Related

Configure Less with PhpStorm doesn't compile

I am trying to compile my styles.less to styles.css. My folder structure is following:
assets->less->styles.less
assets->css->styles.css
I believe my configurations are wrong. In PhpStorm I set less output path to refresh: ../css/$FileNameWithoutExtension$.css
I do have a styles.css file under the less file and it is compiling.
So far I only know regular CSS so I'm not very familiar with Less yet.
Any help?
Your File Watcher setup is incomplete.
Right now it will save the generated file next to the source... but you need it 2 folders up.
You did set up correctly in Output paths to refresh .. but that file tells IDE what file to check when file watcher is finished running. It is not where the generated file will be placed.
You need to alter your Arguments field.
Currently you have ... $FileName$ $FileNameWithoutExtension$.css ...
You need to adjust the path there -- it has to be ... $FileName$ ../../css/$FileNameWithoutExtension$.css ... -- because that's where you specify such path.
(leading and trailing "..." means other parameters that you have got there)
You should have changed the Arguments field accordingly;
Like:
Arguments: --no-color $FileName$ $ProjectFileDir$/themes/elisa/assets/css/$FileDirPathFromParent(less)$$FileNameWithoutExtension$.css
Output paths to refresh: $ProjectFileDir$/themes/elisa/assets/css/$FileDirPathFromParent(less)$$FileNameWithoutExtension$.css

Cmake script problems find_path

I have put these two lines in my Findglm.cmake file to point to the headers for this header library.
find_path(glm_INCLUDE_DIR NAMES glm.hpp matrix_transform.hpp type_ptr.hpp PATHS
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm/gtc
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm/gtx ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2glm/core)
set(glm_INCLUDE_DIRS ${glm_INCLUDE_DIR})
However when I generate my Xcode project it says that it cannot locate matrix_transform.hpp and type_ptr.hpp
I have played around with this some more it appears to only find the first argument I am wondering if I am using find path wrong ?
I am using cmake 2.8.8 darwinports.
The find_path() command returns single directory. In your case, it's the first dir, which contains the first file.
If this glm will be always located in your source dir, it would be sufficient to do
include_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm/gtc
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm/gtx
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/glm-0.9.3.2/glm/core)
The find_path() is used to determine dir somewhere outside of your project.

CMake: Get the complete representation of a path minus relative elements

I want to take a variable that has been set to a combination of path elements (potentially both absolute and relative) and get the absolute path from it. Something like what boost::filesystem::system_complete() does in C++. For example, I have something like:
set(EXTERNAL_LIB_DIR "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/../external" CACHE PATH "Location of externals")
which works but in the UI it's a bit ugly, as it might end up looking like C:/dev/repo/tool/../external. I'm wondering if there's a CMake built-in command to turn that into C:/dev/repo/external before I go and script a macro to do it. find_path kind of does this, but it requires that the path already exist and something worth searching for be there. I want it to work whether the path exists or not (I might use it for an overridden CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX default, for example).
You can use:
get_filename_component(NEW_VAR ${EXTERNAL_LIB_DIR} REALPATH)
As of CMake 3.20, you can use the cmake_path command to normalize the path, which supersedes the get_filename_component command.
cmake_path(SET MY_NEW_PATH NORMALIZE ${EXTERNAL_LIB_DIR})
This also converts any backslashes (\) into forward-slashes cleanly.

Windows 7 environment variable not working in path

I am trying to set up some path using environment variable.
I added an environment variable "MAVEN_HOME" with the value "C:\maven".
Then in the path I added "%MAVEN_HOME%\bin;...rest".
When I type "echo $MAVEN_HOME%" I get the correct "C:\maven" printed on the screen.
But when I type "mvn" which is a batch file in the "bin" directory, it can't find it.
So, I manually added the entire path in PATH.
"C:\maven\bin;...rest"
and it was able to find "mvn" and execute it.
Could someone help me what I did wrong?
Check if there is a space character between the previous path and the next:
Incorrect:
c:\path1; c:\Maven\bin\; c:\path2\
Correct:
c:\path1;c:\Maven\bin\;c:\path2\
I had exactly the same problem, to solve it, you can do one of two things:
Put all variables in System Variables instead of User and add the ones you want to PATH
Or
Put all variables in User Variables, and create or edit the PATH variables in User Variable, not In System. The Path variables in System don't expand the User Variables.
If the above are all correct, but the problem is still present, you need to check the system Registry, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment, to make sure the "PATH" key type is REG_EXPAND_SZ (not REG_SZ).
My issue turned out to be embarrassingly simple:
Restart command prompt and the new variables should update
Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned.
Yes, windows paths that include spaces will cause errors. For example an application added this to the front of the system %PATH% variable definition:
C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools;C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;
which caused all of the paths in %PATH% to not be set in the cmd window.
My solution is to demarcate the extended path variable in double quotes where needed:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools";C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;
The spaces are therefore ignored and the full path variable is parsed properly.
%M2% and %JAVA_HOME% need to be added to a PATH variable in the USER variables, not the SYSTEM variables.
If there is any error at all in the PATH windows will silently disregard it. Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned
Also worth making sure you're using the command prompt as an administrator - the system lock on my work machine meant that the standard cmd just reported mvn could not be found when typing
mvn --version
To use click 'start > all programs > accessories', right-click on 'command prompt' and select 'run as administrator'.
To address this problem, I have used setx command which try to set user level variables.
I used below...
setx JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_92"
setx PATH %JAVA_HOME%\bin
NOTE: Windows try to append provided variable value to existing variable value. So no need to give extra %PATH%... something like %JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
If the PATH value would be too long after your user's PATH variable has been concatenated onto the environment PATH variable, Windows will silently fail to concatenate the user PATH variable.
This can easily happen after new software is installed and adds something to PATH, thereby breaking existing installed software. Windows fail!
The best fix is to edit one of the PATH variables in the Control Panel and remove entries you don't need. Then open a new CMD window and see if all entries are shown in "echo %PATH%".
I had this problem in Windows 10 and it seemed to be solved after I closed "explorer.exe" in the Task Manager.
In my Windows 7.
// not working for me
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts\php.exe
// works fine
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts
I had the same problem, I fixed it by removing PATHEXT from user variable. It must only exist in System variable with .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
Also remove the variable from user to system and only include that path on user variable
Copy the value of path to notepad and check if this corresponds with the echo %path% in terminal window and make changes if needed. Then delete the old path value and paste the notepad value back in.
I assume some invisible character entered there by some installation corrupted the path value.
Make sure both your System and User paths are set correctly.

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.