How to get cmd line build command for VS solution?

Question

This is probably easy but I am getting stuck: when I build a solution in Visual Studio - how do extract the exact cmd line for the current build command in order to be able to do the same build from VisualStudio console?

In the output window I can see the single projects in the solution build commands but not the one for the whole solution.

I am on VS2005.

Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

In addition to what @JohnIdol says correctly, I've found that you need to setup a number VS environment variables. I don't have the name of the batch file in front of me, but you can modify or 'I think' use it. It is in VS program files tree somewhere. Also, as I remember you don't want to be in a standard shell but a .NET setup shell for some paths and such. I'll add details later when I'm at a Windows PC with VS.

EDIT: The batch file mentioned is a shortcut in ProgFiles menu. Here is the details of its properties.

%comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat""x86"

Here is my batch file, using MSBuild to call the solution.

@echo off

:: setup VS2005 command line build environment
set VSINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8
set VCINSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC
set FrameworkDir=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework
set FrameworkVersion=v2.0.50727
set FrameworkSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0
set DevEnvDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE
set PATH=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Com
mon7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\PlatformSDK\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft
 Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PATH%
set INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\ATLMFC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
 Studio 8\VC\PlatformSDK\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\include;%INCLUDE%
set LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\ATLMFC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC
\PlatformSDK\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%LIB%
set LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\ATLMFC\LIB

echo %0 %*
echo %0 %* >> %MrB-LOG%
cd
if not ""=="%~dp1" pushd %~dp1
cd
if exist %~nx1 (
        echo VS2005 build of '%~nx1'.
        echo VS2005 build of '%~nx1'. >> %MrB-LOG%
        set MrB-BUILDLOG=%MrB-BASE%\%MrB-WORK%.%MrB-NICEDATE%.%MrB-NICETIME%.build-errors.log
        msbuild.exe %~nx1 /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release > %MrB-BUILDLOG%
        findstr /r /c:"[1-9][0-9]* Error(s)" %MrB-BUILDLOG%
        if not errorlevel 1 (
                echo ERROR: sending notification email for build errors in '%~nx1'.
                echo ERROR: sending notification email for build errors in '%~nx1'. >> %MrB-LOG%
                call mrb-email "Mr Build isn't happy about build errors in '%~nx1'" %MrB-BUILDLOG%
        ) else (
                findstr /r /c:"[1-9][0-9]* Warning(s)" %MrB-BUILDLOG%
                if not errorlevel 1 (
                        echo ERROR: sending notification email for build warnings in '%~nx1'.
                        echo ERROR: sending notification email for build warnings in '%~nx1'. >> %MrB-LOG%
                        call mrb-email "Mr Build isn't happy about build warnings in '%~nx1'" %MrB-BUILDLOG%
                ) else (
                        echo Successful build of '%~nx1'.
                        echo Successful build of '%~nx1'. >> %MrB-LOG%
                )
        )
) else (
        echo ERROR '%1' doesn't exist.
        echo ERROR '%1' doesn't exist. >> %MrB-LOG%
)
popd