Beginner question - use Build target?

Question

Hi

I have used Visual Studio 2005 for C++ development for a long time, but am only now investigating MSBuild.  My goal is to create a build server without Visual Studio installed.

As a first step, I tried building my project with a command like:

msbuild <mysln>.sln /p:configuration=release /t:build

This worked fine on my desktop PC (which has Visual Studio installed) but I notice that it invokes:

Target Build:
    Target <mysln>:
        C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\..\..\vc\vcpackages\vcbuild.exe C:\mysln>.vcproj "Release|Win32"

So, does this mean that the 'build' target requires Visual Studio to be installed?

If so, for the case when Visual Studio is not present, must I add my own build target to the vcproj file rather than use the default targets in Microsoft.Common.targets?

If so, what would the target look like please?

Best regards

David

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David

Answer 1

Hello, David

MSBuild Actually only build visual C#, visual VB.net and J# project. When meet with visual C++ project, it calls VCBuild to build the C++ project. The VCBuild do the actually build job.

So if you want to build VC++ project, you need to install the Visual C++ compiler. This will cause you install a minimal visual studio, such as visual studio express with only Visual C++ installed, you are not able to install VCBuild seperately.

Thanks

Chao

Answer 2

Hi Chao

Thanks for your answer.

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David