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Targeting multiple frameworks with Cake script


A co-worker recently added .NET Standard support to one of our projects using the new VS2017 .csproj format:

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This seems to have broken my script as I get the following error when using the Cake MSBuild alias (http://cakebuild.net/api/Cake.Common.Tools.MSBuild/MSBuildAliases/C240F0FB):

error : Project 'C:\example\path\myproj.csproj' targets '.NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1'. It cannot be referenced by a project that targets '.NETStandard,Version=v1.6'.

Does Cake support building against multiple frameworks using the new VS2017 project format? If so, is there a way I can do so with the MSBuildSettings argument I can pass to the MSBuild alias? Thanks a lot.


Solution

  • Yes Cake fully supports building VS2017 projects both using latest .NET SDK 1.0.4 and MSBuild 15.x.

    Cake itself is built using Cake, VS2017 and .NET Core SDK 1.0.4 https://github.com/cake-build/cake

    When using MSBuild alias make sure you're using correct version of MSBuild by setting Tool version to MSBuildToolVersion.VS2017.

    MSBuild("./src/Cake.sln", 
        new MSBuildSettings { ToolVersion = MSBuildToolVersion.VS2017
    });
    

    If you've got VS2017 installed in a non standard location, then you can use the VSWhere tool and alias to locate correct MSBuild path

    #tool nuget:?package=vswhere 
    
    DirectoryPath vsLatest = VSWhereLatest();
    
    FilePath msBuildPathX64 = (vsLatest==null) ? null : vsLatest.CombineWithFilePath("./MSBuild/15.0/Bin/amd64/MSBuild.exe"); 
    
    MSBuild("./src/Example.sln", 
        new MSBuildSettings { ToolPath = msBuildPathX64
    }); 
    

    Read more about this at: http://cakebuild.net/blog/2017/03/vswhere-and-visual-studio-2017-support