Capture build output within Visual Studio 2010

Question

Is there a way that I can capture build output, i.e. the text that is output to the Output Window? Right now my only alternative to copy and pasting the text from the Output Window, is to build from a command line and redirect the output to a file.

A quick look at the C# compiler command line options does not reveal any option for specifying an output file for messages like warnings and errors, so I'm guessing VS hooks into the csc.exe process's output stream, to capture its text and write it to the Output Window. Maybe there is a gap where a custom application can also hook in.

It redirects the output of msbuild.exe to the Output window. There's no middle ground here, either you build from the command line or you build from the IDE. It must work the way it does, there's no other way to get the Error List window to show you the build errors. — Hans Passant, Mar 14 '11 at 13:35
@Hans, I'm not looking for middle ground between the command line and the IDE. I'm looking for a way to automatically capture what is output to the Output window during an IDE build, as I think I made clear enough in the first paragraph of my question. — ProfK, Mar 14 '11 at 14:38

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 15 '11 at 07:18

Add the following macro to VS EnvironmentEvent Module (Tools->Macros->Macros IDE...) or ALT+F11. The macro runs after a build completes whether successfully or not.

This will pipe the text output from the output window, more specifically the Build view of the output window to build_output.log. Other IDE Guids can be found on MSDN.

As a reference, the solution was based on HOWTO: Get an OutputWindowPane to output some string from a Visual Studio add-in or macro

Visual Studio provides an Output window ("View", "Other Windows", "Output" menu) to show messages, debug information, etc. That window provides several panes that can be selected through a combobox, such as "Source Control", "Build", "Debug", etc.

The automation model (EnvDTE) provides the EnvDTE.OutputWindow, EnvDTE.OutputWindowPanes and EnvDTE.OutputWindowPane classes.

 Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildDone(ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildDone

        Const BUILD_OUTPUT_PANE_GUID As String = "{1BD8A850-02D1-11D1-BEE7-00A0C913D1F8}"

        Dim t As OutputWindowPane
        Dim txtOutput As TextDocument
        Dim txtSelection As TextSelection
        Dim vsWindow As Window

        vsWindow = DTE.Windows.Item(EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindOutput)

        Dim vsOutputWindow As OutputWindow
        Dim objOutputWindowPane As OutputWindowPane
        Dim objBuildOutputWindowPane As OutputWindowPane
        vsOutputWindow = DirectCast(vsWindow.Object, OutputWindow)

        For Each objOutputWindowPane In vsOutputWindow.OutputWindowPanes
            If objOutputWindowPane.Guid.ToUpper = BUILD_OUTPUT_PANE_GUID Then
                objBuildOutputWindowPane = objOutputWindowPane
                Exit For
            End If
        Next


        txtOutput = objBuildOutputWindowPane.TextDocument
        txtSelection = txtOutput.Selection

        txtSelection.StartOfDocument(False)
        txtSelection.EndOfDocument(True)
        objBuildOutputWindowPane.OutputString(Date.Now)

        txtSelection = txtOutput.Selection
        solutionDir = IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(DTE.Solution.FullName)

        My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(solutionDir & "\build_output.log", txtSelection.Text, False)


        MsgBox(txtSelection.Text)

    End Sub

The above can be tweaked to probably output build info on a per project basis as well. File names for build logs etc can probably be configured based on the current project being built (not too sure about this) and above all you can probably keep the build history.

There a whole of VS events that one can hook into, so the type of things one can do are endless

This was tested on VS2010 Ultimate...

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 12:36

I think you could use the DebugView or develop an application to capture the output window results.

Example from MSDN to manage output window:

public void writeReadOW(DTE2 dte)
{
    // Add-in code.
    // Create a reference to the Output window.
    // Create a tool window reference for the Output window
    // and window pane.
    OutputWindow ow = dte.ToolWindows.OutputWindow;
    OutputWindowPane owP;
    // Create a reference to the pane contents.
    TextDocument owPTxtDoc;
    EditPoint2 strtPt;

    // Select the Build pane in the Output window.
    owP = ow.OutputWindowPanes.Item("Build");
    owP.Activate();
    owPTxtDoc = owP.TextDocument;

    // Put some text in the pane.
    owP.OutputString("Testing 123.");
    // Retrieve the text contents of the pane.
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Startpoint: " + 
      owPTxtDoc.StartPoint.DisplayColumn);
    strtPt = (EditPoint2)owPTxtDoc.StartPoint.CreateEditPoint();
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show
      (strtPt.GetText(owPTxtDoc.EndPoint));
}

Hope helps!

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '11 at 13:05

I don't know if this makes things easier if you know this but visual studios set an environment variable VS_UNICODE_OUTPUT and this is used by the cl.exe compiler to send its output directly to VS. If you clear this variable the cl.exe output goes to standard out and error out.

Hope that helps!

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

-1

You can use the Visual Studio Extensibility (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ff718165) to be able to read the content of the output window. This topic can show how to get a reference to it: How do I write to the Visual Studio Output Window in My Custom Tool?.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

Community

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answered Mar 14 '11 at 12:40

Marius Bancila

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Capture build output within Visual Studio 2010

4 Answers4