This page last changed on May 02, 2007 by rosspatterson.

Most complex build processes use NAnt or MSBuild to script the build. However, for simple projects that just need to build a Visual Studio.NET solution, the Visual Studio task <devenv> provides an easier method.

Examples

Minimalist example:

<devenv>
    <solutionfile>src\MyProject.sln</solutionfile>
    <configuration>Debug</configuration>
</devenv>

Full example:

<devenv>
    <solutionfile>src\MyProject.sln</solutionfile>
    <configuration>Debug</configuration>
    <buildtype>Build</buildtype>
    <project>MyProject</project>
    <executable>c:\program files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Common7\IDE\devenv.com</executable>
    <buildTimeoutSeconds>600</buildTimeoutSeconds>
</devenv>

Configuration Elements:

Node Description Type Required Default
solutionfile The path of the solution file to build. If relative, it is relative to the Project Working Directory. string true n/a
configuration The solution configuration to use (not case sensitive). string true n/a
buildtype The type of build. Valid values are Rebuild, Build or Clean (not case sensitive). string false rebuild
project A specific project in the solution, if you only want to build one project (not case sensitive). string false The default is to build all projects selected by the configuration.
executable The path to devenv.com. string false If not specified, CC.NET will try to find this path from the registry for VS.NET 2003 and 2002 in that order. If you need to use VS.NET 2005, or if you need to use VS.NET 2002 when VS.NET 2003 is installed, you should specify this property to point to the location of devenv.com for the correct VS.NET version.
buildTimeoutSeconds Number of seconds to wait before assuming that the process has hung and should be killed. int false 600 (10 minutes)

Note: this task requires you to have Visual Studio .NET installed on your integration server.

Often programmers like to use a centralised project to build an entire software system. They define specific dependencies and the build order on that specific project to reproduce the behaviours of an nmake build.
Document generated by Confluence on Jun 21, 2007 10:33