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MSBuild Property Functions (2)
Some more information about this 4.0 feature. (I've also updated the first post with this, so everything's in one place for your reference.)Built-in MSBuild functionsThe full list of built-in [MSBuild]...
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Building on Cross targeting scenarios and 64-bit MSBuild
During the Visual Studio 2010 development cycle a push to make the build experience better on Cross compilation scenarios as well on making sure a build using 32-bit MSBuild was identical (in outputs)...
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Assembly Resolution in MSBuild and Visual Studio Series Introduction
Assembly references are an integral part of build process. When the assembly references passed to the compiler are correct everything works but when they are not projects stop building. When this...
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Better Parallelism in MSBuild 4 with YieldDuringToolExecution
IntroductionIn MSBuild 4 we introduced several performance improvements, particular for large interdependent builds. By and large they are automatic and you receive their benefit without making any...
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Debugging MSBuild script with Visual Studio
Back when we started 4.0 development, I polled readers of the MSBuild blog to find out what features were most important to them. Debugging was #1 which was very surprising to us. Thinking about it...
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Debugging MSBuild script with Visual Studio (2)
In my previous post, I showed how to enable the hidden Visual Studio debugger for MSBuild script, and demonstrated it by stepping through the evaluation of a C# project. In this post, I'll keep...
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Debugging MSBuild script with Visual Studio (3)
In my last two posts (here and here) I showed how to enable the unsupported MSBuild debugger to debug a build started on the command line with MSBuild.exe. In this final post, I'll mention some other...
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MSBuild Known Issues
Since the release of Visual Studio 2010 we have received a few reports of crashing behavior which can be traced back to issues with MSBuild. We’ve analyzed all of these and there are several...
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Incorrect solution build ordering when using MSBuild.exe
We've had a few reports of cases where Visual Studio, and previous versions of MSBuild, will build the projects in the solution in the correct order, but the 4.0 version of MSBuild.exe gets the order...
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Second edition of the MSBuild and Team Foundation Build book released
Not many books that are reviewed like this on Amazon:Now the heavily augmented second edition has just come out, written by several people at Microsoft and reviewed by the product team.New extensive...
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What's up with xxx.sln.cache?
We have an infrastructure in developer division for performance measurement. Before a feature crew integrates into their product unit branch, or a product unit does one of their periodic integrations...
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Microsoft Source Analysis releases to web
Six months ago, the developers on MSBuild began to use an internal tool then called "StyleCop" in order to clean up our source code going forward. Think of it as a little like "FXCop" for your C#...
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MSBuild Extensions Pack releases to web
I am very happy to pass on news from Mike Fourie that has released v1 of a remarkably extensive MSBuild Extensions Pack on codeplex. In his words: The MSBuild Extension Pack is the successor to the...
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Inline Tasks CTP Walkthrough Update
Well the CTP is now out, and I hope all are enjoying a preview of the new features being released in Visual Studio 2010. Of particular interest is the walkthrough "How to Create an Inline Task".In this...
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The MSBuild Team Blog Is Moving!
We aren’t going away -- we’re just moving to a better home. To give you even more news, articles, and walkthroughs on Visual Studio, the MSBuild Team blog is moving to become part of The Visual Studio...
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MSBuild Interview on CodeCast
I had the distinct pleasure to meet up with Ken Levy and talk about MSBuild. Ken is responsible for the CodeCast interviews at code magazine.The interview consists of an in-depth technical and scenario...
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If your build fails with “MSB6002: The command-line for the “ResGen” task is...
If you have the RC build of VS2010, you are targeting the 3.5, 3.0, or 2.0 Framework, you have a VB or C# project which has a lot of references, and you also have a lot of .resx files, your build may...
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Build Extensibility with .NET Framework 4
IntroductionWith the release of .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010 comes MSBuild 4.0. Among the many great features in this version are new mechanisms to allow you (or your build lab) to extend...
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MSBuild Task Factories: guest starring Windows Powershell
One of the cool new features of MSBuild 4.0 is the extensible task factory. Task factories allow you to include scripts directly in your project file (or an imported .targets file) and have those...
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Getting Started with MSBuild
I have had several customers asking me about MSBuild and how to get started learning the language and using it. A little over a year and a half ago, I joined the MSBuild team. When I got here, I did...
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