Make it tell me what is out of date in Visual C++ 2005 project

Question

I have a 100+ source file VC++ project in Visual Studio 2005. A lot of those files have custom build steps. There is something that is not updated when I build. Every time I hit the start debug button it prompts me with a "This project is out of date:" dialog and asks if I want to build it. I choose yes, but nothing compiles. I suppose I could take out the source files one by one util I find the problem. There should be an easier way.

Every make equivalent I have used had command line options that would display the out of date target(s) and the step(s) used to build it. I would use this to solve the problem by building normally, then building with the verbose option. The problem file would be the only one built!

I would expect there is an equivalent setting in Visual Studio that I have not found yet. (Tools->options->Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->MsBuild output verbosity) does not give enough information to identify the problem. How do I make VS2005 tell me exactly what it is trying to build?

If this is VS2005 then this is not related to MSBuild, so you should remove the MSBuild tag on this question. — Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, Jan 30 '11 at 20:51
@Sayed: How do you figure? VS 2005 works just fine with MSBuild. — Cody Gray - on strike, Jan 31 '11 at 08:10
VCBuild is used for VC++ projects for 2005, MSBuild only started supporting VC++ projects in VS 2010. — Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, Jan 31 '11 at 08:47

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '11 at 07:31

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Have you tried building it from command line using VCBuild ? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/cz553aa1(v=VS.80).aspx

answered Feb 01 '11 at 07:31

codelion

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From the command line with the /logcommands option gave me the information I needed to fix the problem. Thanks. – Rodney Schuler Feb 03 '11 at 18:08

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '11 at 15:35

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I've done this in the past using the technique outlined here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vsproject/archive/2009/07/21/enable-c-project-system-logging.aspx

Hope this helps!

answered Feb 01 '11 at 15:35

Scott

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The link says it's for VS-2010; it doesn't seem to work in VS-2005. – anatolyg Feb 01 '11 at 16:37

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 28 '11 at 22:50

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It shouldn't take that long to compare the dates of the source files to the corresponding OBJ files.

It sounds to me like you have a file that is not correctly configured to build. Do you have files other than C++ files? Assembler, help files, etc?

answered Jan 28 '11 at 22:50

Jonathan Wood

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Yes, there are lots of custom build steps in the project. Some code generation. Some data/help files. I am trying to figure out which one (of the many) is not correctly configured. – Rodney Schuler Feb 03 '11 at 18:07
Manually compare the dates of the uncompiled vs. compiled files. Unless you have hundreds of source files, this shouldn't be that big of a task. Or go through and click Build on each source file and see what happens. And thoroughly check your error messages and logs. It's hard to be much more specific without working with your project. – Jonathan Wood Feb 03 '11 at 18:10

Make it tell me what is out of date in Visual C++ 2005 project

3 Answers3