I have a C# Library Project. I have defined a Conditional Compilation Symbol: SHOULDWORK
But the problem is that this symbol is NOT being defined. I have no idea why.
This is not an asp.net project. I am using VS 2013. I have used Preprocessor Definitions extensively in c++ so it is nothing new to me. But I just can't figure out what the problem is.
I tried rebuilding, restarting VS but to no avail.
I tried using the SHOULDWORK symbol on different source files in that same project but the symbol is not defined.
HELP!!!
Just as sidenote, the DEBUG symbol works as expected. It is defined for Debug builds and not defined for Release builds.
** EDIT
The symbol is correctly stored in the *.csproj file:
** SOLVED
The csproj had several PropertyGroup entries where DefineConstants was being defined.
I manually added the symbols I needed to define to those PropertyGroups and then it worked.
It seems the project file was edited manually in the past, which could have led to this. It will need to be cleaned up but at least for now I can move on.
If using properties panel doesn't work you can modify manually the project file.
Right-click on the file project from vs
Unload project
Right-click again
Edit project file
Now you can modify the project. Find all the propertygroup you are interested in: if you want to add the conditional compilation symbols far all compilation types, you should add the symbol in every single PropertyGroup related to compilation.
This is an example of a propertygroup for compilation:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
Inside the group you'll find the tag <DefineConstants> :
Add here your constant and reload the project.
Sure, you can simply modify le prj outside vs, as a simple text file.
Related
I'm looking into enforcing code styles and to start I implemented IDE0058, IDE0059 and IDE0060 in my .editorconfig, like so:
csharp_style_unused_value_expression_statement_preference = discard_variable:error
csharp_style_unused_value_assignment_preference = discard_variable:error
dotnet_code_quality_unused_parameters = all:error
When I run build in visual studio 2022 on windows I do get errors for them, although the build still succeeds.
However, when I run dotnet build from the command line, I don't get any errors and when I searched for the style codes, I couldn't find any mention of them.
My colleague tested it on his macbook, and the mac version of visual studio didn't give any errors. Neither did the command line.
In our gitlab pipeline we also run dotnet build, which also passed without any errors.
In all environments we are using .NET 6.0.
Is it possible to enforce these code styles using .editorconfig? If so, how?
If not, how can code styles be enforced?
Add following lines to csproj file
<PropertyGroup>
<EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>true</EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>
<AnalysisLevel>6.0-recommended</AnalysisLevel>
</PropertyGroup>
Then in editorconfig additionally to your existing rules add
dotnet_diagnostic.IDE0058.severity = error
dotnet_diagnostic.IDE0059.severity = error
dotnet_diagnostic.IDE0060.severity = error
You need to enable the project properties:
Right-click the project
Click "Build"
Set Treat warnings as errors to All:
However, if you do it, it'll be added only for current configuration which is probably Debug.
You can do it manually via UI for both configurations (Debug and Release).
Or you can edit your .csproj file.
This will be added if you set Treat warnings as errors: All via UI.
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|AnyCPU'">
<TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
<WarningsAsErrors />
</PropertyGroup>
You can duplicate it and change the configuration:
ded if you set Treat warnings as errors: All via UI.
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|AnyCPU'"> // Changed `Debug` to `Release`
<TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
<WarningsAsErrors />
</PropertyGroup>
OK here is my problem I have 2 library and 2 project that include their .csproj (1 for Dev, 1 for Client Delivery).
I need a Defined constant to set accessible most of my class when we are with the Dev purpose (internal -> public).
I used a Directory.Build.props in my dev project directory that defined a variable and my Libraries .csproj define a constant if this variable exists.
<PropertyGroup Condition ="$(ActiveIHMMode)=='true'">
<DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);DEV_IHM_MODE</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
I can see everything work well for my dev proj but it doesn't for my Libraries (they don't see my .props variable)
I assume there is a simple reason for it, it's because of dependencies compile order.
My directory Hierarchie is the following :
LibA
LibB
ProjectDelivery
ProjectDev
My LibA is compiled first and doesn't find any Directory.Build.props because my file is in my ProjectDev Directory, but my ProjectDev as the last element to compile finds it, but it's too late for my Lib.
First time using .props and I can't see a way to resolve it. Thanks for your future help.
First of all, to clarify a possible confusion inferred from your title, automatically importing Directory.Build.props is not a Visual Studio 2017 feature, but a MSBuild 15 feature (which is included with VS2019).
With my nitpicking out of the way, let's get technical:
The problem is not your build order. The reason Directory.Build.props is only picked up in your ProjectDev project, is because MSBuild looks in the directory of the .csproj for a file called Directory.Build.props and imports it if it finds it. If it is not found, the file is searched in the parent directory. And it keeps looking for the Directory.Build.props in the parent directory until it reaches the root, or it actually finds that file and then stops, so it only automatically imports the first Directory.Build.props found.
Your project structure, as described above, looks like this:
/LibA/
/LibA/LibA.csproj
/LibB/
/LibB/LibB.csproj
/ProjectDelivery/
/ProjectDelivery/ProjectDelivery.csproj
/ProjectDev/
/ProjectDev/ProjectDev.csproj
/ProjectDev/Directory.Build.props
Only ProjectDev gets the Directory.Build.props automatically imported; none of the other projects have a Directory.Build.props neither in their directory nor in any of their parent directories.
To fix your issue you can either move the Directory.Build.props one folder up, so that it gets automatically imported by all of your projects,
or you may import the Directory.Build.props manually by adding an Import element to your .csproj:
<Project>
<Import Project="..\ProjectDev\Directory.Build.props" />
</Project>
You can read up on more details about Directory.Build.props in the documentation.
I have a feature that I only want to happen on Debug, but do not want to ship the dll's that this feature requires. Is that possible to do?
I have:
#if DEBUG
using MyAssembly;
#endif
Of course MyAssembly is being referenced by the project. I would like MyAssembly.dll to not be shipped on a release mode. Can that be achieved? Will using Conditional("DEBUG") help in this regard?
References that aren't required are usually removed automatically by the compiler, however: you can be more explicit by changing the csproj to include a Condition on the PropertyGroup. Something like:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
<Reference Include="YourReference" />
</PropertyGroup>
(it could also be a <PackageReference> etc)
It's perfectly fine to put a using directive in an #if DEBUG section, and it will remove that directive when compiled for debug.
However, that's only part of the story; it won't accomplish your objective by itself. The Solution Explorer in Visual Studio also has a References section. You would need to remove the reference for the assembly, as well, or it will still be included when you build.
I don't recall anything in the Visual Studio user interface that will let you do this, but I expect it should be possible somehow if you manually edit the Project file (it's just an MSBuild file). Personally, I try very hard to avoid doing things that require manual edits to the project files. Visual Studio wants to be able to own these files, and you can end up creating conflicts, where you and Visual Studio overwrite each other's changes.
I have a C# app with a few different build configurations for different 'flavors' of the app. I would like to have ClickOnce publish options for each configuration, rather than have to set them each time I do a build-and-publish. It appears that the publish options apply to all the configurations. Is there a way to make publish options specific to each configuration?
You cannot make them different for each configuration directly inside Visual Studio. You need to edit the .csproj file and make the following changes to the things you need to be different.
E.g. the first <PropertyGroup> element contains the <PublishUrl> element. You can apply conditions and add the element multiple times:
<PublishUrl Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">debug\</PublishUrl>
<PublishUrl Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">release\</PublishUrl>
When the project is published using the Debug configuration, it will be published to the debug directory.
When the project is published using the Release configuration, it will be published to the release directory.
Apply this conditions to the elements you need to modify. Sadly, you can apply the condition to a whole PropertyGroup, but this is much more complex, as you need to duplicate and keep track of both groups, if you make a change in any of them.
BUT:
This will be overwritten every time you save the project from inside Visual Studio.
So you can either make a xslt file which transforms the file before publishing, or directly create your own publishing application, that fills all required publishing parameter only when publishing it e.g. from a build server.
Edit
This answer will not help. Since I wrote it, I found out that even when using the Choose element, the Visual Studio IDE (at least VS2015) can't seem te keep its hands off our configuration. Although the code below works, when switching between configurations and publishing, at some point the IDE will overwrite this section in the project file in such a way that it no longer works as intended.
Because it technically works as is, and as such could perhaps be useful when using another tool for publishing (or when the issue in VS gets fixed), I'll leave the original answer for reference.
Original answer
I too first tried the solution mentioned by Herdo, only to run into the big "But" he mentions; Visual Studio overwriting your conditionals every time you save the project file.
However, I since found that with the Choose element you can achieve the same behavior without Visual Studio messing with it. You still need to manually edit the .csproj file though.
In short, do not apply the Conditional directly to the PublishUrl tag in the first property group. It will get overwritten by Visual Studio. Instead, define another one later in the project file. When building or publishing, the second one's value will supersede the first one's value, but the IDE will leave it alone. It is that second one you can make conditional using a Choose group.
Below that first property group, add section like this:
<Choose>
<When Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishUrl>your\debug\publish\location</PublishUrl>
</PropertyGroup>
</When>
<When Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishUrl>your\release\publish\location</PublishUrl>
</PropertyGroup>
</When>
</Choose>
Of course, you can add as many configurations and flavors as you like.
At the menu where you set Debug, Release. You can create a new type of configuration. Once you created your own configuration. You can use the code above:
#if ReleaseConfiguration1
//specifics configuration 1 goes here
#endif
#if ReleaseConfiguration2
//specifics configuration 2 goes here
#endif
I have a C# project in vs2010 that has several build options (Debug, Release, Debug x86, Debug I Just Got A New Hat, etc), because some people have gone a bit overboard in adding projects.
I want to revert all of that to just the four basic build types:
debug x86
release x86
debug x64
release x64
I remove a project, save the sln with that project apparently no longer in the solution, and then add it back, but apparently the settings for the project have been saved. Is there any way to remove these extraneous projects entirely from the build manager and start from scratch short of creating a new SLN file?
The impetus for fixing this problem is that one of the projects in the solution won't allow for an x64 build to be made. If I try to create an x64 build for that project, the build manager states that the x64 build already exists, even when though clearly does not. The build manager isn't allowing me to remove build modes, just add them, but then it doesn't let me add the x64, which is what I'm needing.
Quickest way is to manually edit the .proj files in notepad, removing all the
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'NewHat|x64' ">...</PropertyGroup>
elements for each configuration. Then finally remove the unwanted solution configurations by again editing the .sln file in notepad. They are easy to spot.
Once removed, you should be able to open up the solution in VS and set things right in the configuration manager
The alternatives are to use a macro or VS EnvDTE classes to automate the process but that's perhaps the sledgehammer for a nut.
Normally I don't recommend doing this but you may need to take Notepad or your favourite XML editor and change the contents of your csproj file. The reason I don't like to recommend this approach is that if you get the editing wrong you can end up with a broken project.
Obviously you should back everything up before you start so you can at least get back to your current state if everything goes pear shaped.
Ideally you can dig into your Source Code Control system and get a copy of the csproj file from back when it wasn't broken and use that as a rough guide to what a well formed csproj file for your project looks like.
You can also create a completely new C# project using the same template as your project and use that project's csproj file as another guide to what things should look like.
If you're lucky your csproj file will contain a number of PropertyGroup items, some of which will have a condition identifying the particular build combination the group applies to. For example...
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x64'">
<OutputPath>bin\x64\Release\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
<Optimize>true</Optimize>
<DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
<PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>
If you delete the groups for configurations you no longer want and delete any that seem to apply to x64 you may find that the build manager will let you add an x64 configuration.