MSBuild Archives | Buck Hodges

A tool to find duplicate copies in a build

Buck HodgesJanuary 21, 2012Jan 21, 201201/21/12

As part of our builds, quite a few projects copy files to the binaries directory or other locations. These can be anything from image files to test scripts. To have our builds complete more quickly, we use the multi-process option (/maxcpucount) of msbuild to build projects in parallel. This all sounds normal, so what’s the prob

The book to buy on team build: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build, Second Edition

Buck HodgesFebruary 13, 2011Feb 13, 201102/13/11

If you are responsible for work with your team’s build system, you will definitely want to buy a copy of Inside the Microsoft Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build (Second Edition). Both of the authors now work for Microsoft. William Bartholomew is part of the central engineering team and has been building the inf

How to use the MSBuild debugger in Visual Studio 2010

Buck HodgesJuly 17, 2010Jul 17, 201007/17/10

Dan Moseley, dev lead for msbuild, wrote a debugger for msbuild while on leave(!) back during the 2010 cycle. While it ultimately couldn’t be fully completed and tested to be an official feature, it is in the product with a switch to enable it (it’s off by default). This was a conscious decision made by the VS team, and

Debug your build with MSBuild Sidekick v2.3

Buck HodgesMarch 30, 2009Mar 30, 200903/30/09

The folks at Attrice have released a new version of their MSBuild Sidekick, and it now includes a visual debugger for msbuild. If you've ever tried to debug a build process, you know how tedious it can be and will want to check this out. MSBuild Sidekick v 2.3 is released We are happy to announce the release of version 2.3 of MSBuil

New book on MSBuild and Team Foundation Build

Buck HodgesFebruary 6, 2009Feb 6, 200902/6/09

There is now a book dedicated to MSBuild and Team Foundation Build. The book is written by Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi and William Bartholomew. Sayed has written about MSBuild before, both in books and MSDN Magazine articles, and William is a Team System MVP with a lot of experience in customizing the build process in Team Foundation.If

Using Team Foundation Build with BizTalk and SSIS projects

Buck HodgesOctober 23, 2008Oct 23, 200810/23/08

Unfortunately there are several types of projects that do not work natively with MSBuild. Jim Lamb, program manager for Team Build, has put together a few posts with pointers on how to get these to work with Team Build. Technorati Tags: team foundation server,team build,biztalk,sql ssis,msbuild

MSBuild Extensions Pack now available

Buck HodgesOctober 19, 2008Oct 19, 200810/19/08

Mike Fourie has released the first version of MSBuild Extensions Pack on CodePlex. This is a great collection of quality tasks for MSBuild that you can also use in Team Foundation Build. The MSBuild Extension Pack is the successor to the FreeToDev MSBuild Tasks Suite and provides a collection of over 170 MSBuild tasks designed for the

Automation with MSBuild 3.5 and Team Build 2008 recording is now available

Buck HodgesAugust 28, 2008Aug 28, 200808/28/08

Charles Sterling announced a new interactive forum called MVP TV earlier this month. The first event was Automation with MSBuild 3.5 and Team Build 2008. Now the recording for this event is available. The debut of MVP TV Attendance: 92 attendees Thursday, August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

MSBuild project analysis tool: BuildCop

Buck HodgesMarch 18, 2008Mar 18, 200803/18/08

Jelle Druyts has created an interesting tool and made it available on CodePlex. Just Released: BuildCop v1.0! It is with great pleasure that I'm finally ready to release another open source tool on CodePlex: BuildCop. BuildCop is a tool that analyzes MSBuild project files (interactively or during e.g. a daily build) according to a customiz

MSBuild by Example

Buck HodgesFebruary 5, 2008Feb 5, 200802/5/08

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi's book, Deploying .NET Applications, contains a chapter on MSBuild. While I knew about the chapter in the book, I didn't realize that the chapter on MSBuild was available online until Eugene Zakhareyev mentioned it. If you are looking for a good way to get started with MSBuild, MSBuild: By Example is a good place t

Buck Hodges