Is there a way to conditionally run Visual Studio Post Build Steps

Question

What we are looking for is: while compiling the same configuration, say Release|Win32, is there a way to only do the postbuild steps sometimes. Like, if I am on a dev machine do all the post-build steps or if I am on a build server then don't do them. Or is the only way to accomplish this is by implementing a new configuration?

Commenters: Thanks for the ideas, we do not want to use scripts as they would be one more thing to maintain, and going to MSBuild proj files would be a lot of headache at this point as well. Thanks for trying though.

Duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/150053/how-to-run-visual-studio-post-build-events-for-debug-build-only — JC., Mar 18 '10 at 15:25

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:30

16

You could use environment variables in the post build script. Something like this:

if NOT %ComputerName% == DEVMACHINENAME GOTO end
c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ngen "$(TargetPath)"
:end

answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:30

Lurker Indeed

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+1 This feels like the most straight forward approach to solving the problem. Let the build do it's thing, and push the conditional logic into the post build step. – Scott Saad Dec 01 '08 at 15:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:28

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If you want to crack into MSBuild itself (.*proj files are essentially just MSBuild scripts), you can run machine-specific steps post-build: http://flimflan.com/blog/MachineSpecificTasksWithMSBuild.aspx

"This takes advantage of the fact that all environment variables are immediately available as properties in an MSBuild script; and that all Windows machines (that I've worked on recently) have the COMPUTERNAME environment variable set."

answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:28

Chris

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I'd suggest just setting a different env variable, not hard-code the scripts to specific machine names - rather set some env var like BUILD_MACHINE=TRUE and then check them. – Tim Dec 01 '08 at 15:31

Dirk Vollmar · Answer 3 · 2012-12-18T11:19:54.730

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If you don't like to have a separate build configuration (which I think would make most sense) you could e.g. define an environment variable on your build server which you then can test for in you post-build script.

edited Dec 18 '12 at 11:19

answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:29

Dirk Vollmar

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:30

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Would it be possible to implement your post build steps as an external script which is always executed, but has logic to conditionally perform the steps you require?

answered Dec 01 '08 at 15:30

Peter M

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Is there a way to conditionally run Visual Studio Post Build Steps

4 Answers4