MSBUILD error MSB1008 Only one project can be specified

Question

Why am I getting the following Build error   C  WINDOWS Microsoft NET Framework v3 5 msbuild exe C  Code EduBenesysNET EduBenesysNET EduBenesysNET vbproj  t publish  p Configuration Release  p Platform AnyCPU  v detailed  p PublishDir    BSIIS3 c  DATA WEBSITES benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest     p InstallUrl  https   www benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest     p ApplicationVersion 1 0 1 198   p ProductName  Total Education TEST     p PublisherName  BeneSys  Inc     p UpdateRequired  True    p MinimumRequiredVersion 1 0 1 198 Microsoft  R  Build Engine Version 3 5 30729 1  Microsoft  NET Framework  Version 2 0 50727 3603  Copyright  C  Microsoft Corporation 2007  All rights reserved   MSBUILD   error MSB1008  Only one project can be specified  Switch  Education  For switch syntax  type  MSBuild  help    I do not see how a second project is being specified  Is it stored in a project file somewhere

User · Answer

For me I had forgot to add closing quote   p DeployOnBuild true OutDir    build artifactstagingdirectory   to    p DeployOnBuild true OutDir    build artifactstagingdirectory

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I was using single quotes around the password parameter when I got the error   p password  my secret  bad   and changed it to use double quotes to resolve the issue     p password  my secret  good   Likely the same would apply to any parameter that needs quotes for values that contain a space

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SOLUTION Remove the Quotes around the  p PublishDir setting  i e  Instead of quotes      p PublishDir    BSIIS3 c  DATA WEBSITES benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest       Use no quotes     p PublishDir   BSIIS3 c  DATA WEBSITES benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest      I am sorry I did not post my finding sooner  I actually had to research again to see what needed to be changed  Who would have thought removing quotes would have worked  I discovered this when viewing a coworkers build for another solution and noticed it did not have quotes

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In vs2012 just try to create a Build definition  Test Build  using the default TFS template   DefaultTemplate    xaml   usually a copy of it   It will fail with the usual self-explaining-error   MSBUILD   error MSB1008  Only one project can be specified Switch  Activities   Off course somewhere in the default TFS template some   are missing so msbuild will receive as parameter a non escaped directory containing spaces so will result in multiple projects      So NEVER use spaces in you TFS  Build Definition names  pretty sad and simple at the same time

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If you are using Any CPU you may need to put it in single quotes   Certainly when running in a Dockerfile  I had to use single quotes     Fails  Gives  MSBUILD   error MSB1008  Only one project can be specified  RUN msbuild ConsoleAppFw451 sln  p Configuration Debug  p Platform  Any CPU      Passes  Gives  Successfully built 40163c3e0121 RUN msbuild ConsoleAppFw451 sln  p Configuration Debug  p Platform  Any CPU

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If you use default workspace in Jenkins  this might occur  Use custom workspace location without any spaces

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If you are using Azure DevOps MSBuild task the error may be caused by doubled configuration flag  Please make sure you put   BuildConfiguration  in specified box instead of MSBuild Arguments one

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On Git Bash I had to specify the parameters with double slashes like   MSBuild exe  Path to Solution sln    p Platform  x86    p Configuration Release   p AppxBundlePlatforms  x86

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You need to put qoutes around the path and file name  So use  MSBuild  C  Path Name File Name Exe    Options

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This worked for me in TFS MSBuild Argument   Note the number of slashes    p DefaultPackageOutputDir    Rdevnet Visual Studio Projects Insurance

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I did use solution given in https   www codingdefined com 2014 10 solved-msbuild-error-msb1008-only-one html and that solves the issue  All we need to do is check spaces and    check backslashes  in the command

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For me adding the path to the solution file in double quotes solved the issue  One of the folders in the path had a blank space in the name and this caused it to consider 2 solution files instead of one  I executed in the following was and it worked  MSBuild exe  quot C  Folder Name With Space Project project sln quot

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Yet another cause and solution to this  Check that you didn t put a space in the wrong place  i e  in parameters  mine was dotnet -c Release - o  home some path  note the space between - and o   I kept looking at the path itself  which was correct and threw me off  Hope that helps   this was in Bash though it should also apply to Windows

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Just in case someone has the same issue as me  I was missing     before one of the   p  arguments  Not very clear from the description  I hope this helps someone

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This problem appears when you have a path or a property containing a space and that is not quoted    All your properties and path have quote around them  it s strange  The error message indicates Education as a switch  try to remove  p ProductName  Total Education TEST  to see if it works

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Try to remove the trailing backslash or slash at the end of you publish path and install url   p PublishDir    BSIIS3 c  DATA WEBSITES benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest   p InstallUrl  https   www benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest    You must have hit a special sequence of characters with the    and  or      but I don t know enough in cmd exe to figure out   I personnaly always use Powershell   it s way more friendly and powerful   Hope it helps

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It turns out the trailing slash in the PublishDir property is escaping the end quote  Escaping the trailing slash solved my problem    p PublishDir    BSIIS3 c  DATA WEBSITES benesys net benesys net TotalEducationTest      This way we can use quotes for paths that have whitespace in properties that MSBuild requires the trailing slash   I know this is an old post  but I feel like I needed to share this with someone  -

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For future readers   I got this error because my specified LOG file had a space in it   BEFORE    l FileLogger Microsoft Build Engine logfile c  Folder With Spaces My Log log   AFTER   which resolved it    l FileLogger Microsoft Build Engine logfile  c  Folder With Spaces My Log log

[visual-studio] MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified

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