msbuild -p option

Question

We could use msbuild to build project from command line. My question is about -p option. This option is used to specify property key/value pairs. My question is, besides the key/value pair assigned by -p option from command line, any other already existing defined options? If there are such existing defined options, where are the existing options defined and how such key/value pairs are used during build process?

For example, command like msbuild foo.sln /p:Configuration=Debug, besides option Configuration (whose value is Debug), are there any already defined existing options?

thanks in advance, George

Answer 1

See MSBuild Reserved Properties and How To: Use Environment Variables in a Build, since these are kinda properties too.

Answer 2

The properties will vary from project type to project type but here a list of typical ones for .NET projects with example values:

• Configuration: Debug, Release
• Platform: x86, x64, Any CPU
• Optimize: true, false
• OutputPath: bin\Debug\, bin\Release\
• NoWarn: 1591 (suppress missing XML documentation warning)

To see all the other properties used during a build you can open up the common MSBuild targets located in the Framework directory: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319. Check out Microsoft.Common.targets and Microsoft.CSharp.targets for C# project build properties.

If you want in-depth coverage of MSBuild I recommend reading Inside the Microsoft Build Engine or MSBuild Trickery. If you already know the basics though I would skip the first book. You can get basic tutorials for MSBuild online.