How do I compile a Visual Studio project from the command-line

Question

I m scripting the checkout  build  distribution  test  and commit cycle for a large C   solution that is using Monotone  CMake  Visual Studio Express 2008  and custom tests     All of the other parts seem pretty straight-forward  but I don t see how to compile the Visual Studio solution without getting the GUI     The script is written in Python  but an answer that would allow me to just make a call to  os system would do

User · Answer

MSBuild usually works  but I ve run into difficulties before   You may have better luck with  devenv YourSolution sln  Build

User · Answer

To be honest I have to add my 2 cents   You can do it with msbuild exe  There are many version of the  msbuild exe      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v2 0 50727 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v3 5 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v2 0 50727 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v3 5 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   Use version you need  Basically you have to use the last one      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   So how to do it    Run the COMMAND window Input the path to msbuild exe      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe    Input the path to the project solution like       C  Users Clark Kent Documents visual studio   2012 Projects WpfApplication1 WpfApplication1 sln     Add any flags you need after the solution path  Press ENTER   Note you can get help about all possible flags like      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe  help

User · Answer

MSBuild is your friend   msbuild  C  path to solution project sln

User · Answer

MSBuild is your friend   msbuild  C  path to solution project sln

User · Answer

MSBuild usually works  but I ve run into difficulties before   You may have better luck with  devenv YourSolution sln  Build

User · Answer

MSBuild is your friend   msbuild  C  path to solution project sln

User · Answer

MSBuild usually works  but I ve run into difficulties before   You may have better luck with  devenv YourSolution sln  Build

User · Answer

MSBuild is your friend   msbuild  C  path to solution project sln

User · Answer

I know of two ways to do it     Method 1 The first method  which I prefer  is to use msbuild   msbuild project sln  Flags      Method 2 You can also run   vcexpress project sln  build  Flags      The vcexpress option returns immediately and does not print any output  I suppose that might be what you want for a script   Note that DevEnv is not distributed with Visual Studio Express 2008  I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out when I first had a similar issue      So  the end result might be   os system  msbuild project sln  p Configuration Debug     You ll also want to make sure your environment variables are correct  as msbuild and vcexpress are not by default on the system path  Either start the Visual Studio build environment and run your script from there  or modify the paths in Python  with os putenv

User · Answer

DEVENV works well in many cases  but on a WIXPROJ to build my WIX installer  all I got is  CATASTROPHIC  error in the Out log   This works  MSBUILD  Path PROJECT WIXPROJ  t Build  p Configuration Release

User · Answer

DEVENV works well in many cases  but on a WIXPROJ to build my WIX installer  all I got is  CATASTROPHIC  error in the Out log   This works  MSBUILD  Path PROJECT WIXPROJ  t Build  p Configuration Release

User · Answer

Using msbuild as pointed out by others worked for me but I needed to do a bit more than just that  First of all  msbuild needs to have access to the compiler  This can be done by running    C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 12 0 VC vcvarsall bat    Then msbuild was not in my  PATH so I had to run it via its explicit path    C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe  myproj sln   Lastly  my project was making use of some variables like   VisualStudioDir   It seems those do not get set by msbuild so I had to set them manually via the  property option    C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe   property VisualStudioDir  C  Users Administrator Documents Visual Studio 2013  myproj sln   That line then finally allowed me to compile my project   Bonus  it seems that the command line tools do not require a registration after 30 days of using them like the  free  GUI-based Visual Studio Community edition does  With the Microsoft registration requirement in place  that version is hardly free  Free-as-in-facebook if anything

User · Answer

I know of two ways to do it     Method 1 The first method  which I prefer  is to use msbuild   msbuild project sln  Flags      Method 2 You can also run   vcexpress project sln  build  Flags      The vcexpress option returns immediately and does not print any output  I suppose that might be what you want for a script   Note that DevEnv is not distributed with Visual Studio Express 2008  I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out when I first had a similar issue      So  the end result might be   os system  msbuild project sln  p Configuration Debug     You ll also want to make sure your environment variables are correct  as msbuild and vcexpress are not by default on the system path  Either start the Visual Studio build environment and run your script from there  or modify the paths in Python  with os putenv

User · Answer

MSBuild usually works  but I ve run into difficulties before   You may have better luck with  devenv YourSolution sln  Build

User · Answer

I know of two ways to do it     Method 1 The first method  which I prefer  is to use msbuild   msbuild project sln  Flags      Method 2 You can also run   vcexpress project sln  build  Flags      The vcexpress option returns immediately and does not print any output  I suppose that might be what you want for a script   Note that DevEnv is not distributed with Visual Studio Express 2008  I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out when I first had a similar issue      So  the end result might be   os system  msbuild project sln  p Configuration Debug     You ll also want to make sure your environment variables are correct  as msbuild and vcexpress are not by default on the system path  Either start the Visual Studio build environment and run your script from there  or modify the paths in Python  with os putenv

User · Answer

I know of two ways to do it     Method 1 The first method  which I prefer  is to use msbuild   msbuild project sln  Flags      Method 2 You can also run   vcexpress project sln  build  Flags      The vcexpress option returns immediately and does not print any output  I suppose that might be what you want for a script   Note that DevEnv is not distributed with Visual Studio Express 2008  I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out when I first had a similar issue      So  the end result might be   os system  msbuild project sln  p Configuration Debug     You ll also want to make sure your environment variables are correct  as msbuild and vcexpress are not by default on the system path  Either start the Visual Studio build environment and run your script from there  or modify the paths in Python  with os putenv

User · Answer

Using msbuild as pointed out by others worked for me but I needed to do a bit more than just that  First of all  msbuild needs to have access to the compiler  This can be done by running    C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 12 0 VC vcvarsall bat    Then msbuild was not in my  PATH so I had to run it via its explicit path    C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe  myproj sln   Lastly  my project was making use of some variables like   VisualStudioDir   It seems those do not get set by msbuild so I had to set them manually via the  property option    C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe   property VisualStudioDir  C  Users Administrator Documents Visual Studio 2013  myproj sln   That line then finally allowed me to compile my project   Bonus  it seems that the command line tools do not require a registration after 30 days of using them like the  free  GUI-based Visual Studio Community edition does  With the Microsoft registration requirement in place  that version is hardly free  Free-as-in-facebook if anything

User · Answer

To be honest I have to add my 2 cents   You can do it with msbuild exe  There are many version of the  msbuild exe      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v2 0 50727 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v3 5 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v2 0 50727 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v3 5 msbuild exe   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   Use version you need  Basically you have to use the last one      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe   So how to do it    Run the COMMAND window Input the path to msbuild exe      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe    Input the path to the project solution like       C  Users Clark Kent Documents visual studio   2012 Projects WpfApplication1 WpfApplication1 sln     Add any flags you need after the solution path  Press ENTER   Note you can get help about all possible flags like      C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework64 v4 0 30319 msbuild exe  help

[c++] How do I compile a Visual Studio project from the command-line?

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