Hack the Build: Lay of the Land

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Jomo Fisher--I think it would be helpful to take a step back and look at the files that are part of MSBuild.

 

The binaries are all installed in the framework folder (e.g. c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.xxxx):

 

MSBuild.exe – is the command-line driver. Any C# or VB project you create in VS can also be passed to MSBuild.exe to be built from the command-line.

 

Microsoft.Build.Engine.dll – is the common build engine that’s consumed by VS and MSBuild.exe. The engine is responsible for reading in and executing build scripts.

 

Microsoft.Build.Tasks.dll – contains MSBuild “tasks” which are discrete, reusable build components. For example, there’s a Copy task which can be used to copy files around. There’s also a Csc task for invoking the C# compiler.

 

Microsoft.Build.Utilities.dll – is a set of utilities classes useful for people who want to write their own tasks. There’s a convenient Task base class that has helpers for doing a lot of the grunt work.

 

Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll – has a set of interfaces that define the way the engine talks with tasks and loggers.

 

Microsoft.Build.Conversion.dll – has code that converts from VS .NET 2003 project format to Whidbey MSBuild format.

 

The DLLs are also registered in the GAC.

 

All C# and VB build logic in Whidbey is expressed in terms of “Targets” files. These are XML files that contain script in the MSBuild language:

 

Microsoft.Common.targets – most of the work is done here.

Microsoft.CSharp.targets – contains the part of the build logic that is specific to C#.

Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets – contains the part of the build logic that is specific to VB.

 

Finally, there is:

 

Microsoft.Common.tasks – an XML file that shows the default tasks that are available to every build script.

 

Now for the hack of the day. Try this from the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.xxxx folder:

 

for /F %i in ('dir *.tasks *.targets /s/b') do @type %i | findstr /i "UsingTask"

 

This should list the name of every MSBuild task available out of the box, including the undocumented ones.

 

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