Merge pull request #5714 from alexischr/update_bockbuild

[mono.git] / msvc / scripts / README

diff --git a/msvc/scripts/README b/msvc/scripts/README
index a1bf2a3afc461bdc105e18e2b7225243f85c08f4..e73eab7fc0b09ee6bd5479406d0427f15a0af8f2 100644 (file)
--- a/msvc/scripts/README
+++ b/msvc/scripts/README
@@ -1,13 +1,22 @@
+README                                 Last updated: 2013-01-09
 
-The scripts in this directory are used to:
+Visual Studio Build Setup for Mono's Managed Code
+=================================================
+
+The scripts in this directory are used to create the various .csproj
+for each one of the modules in Mono.  To avoid accidentally making
+changes on the Makefile system that is not reflected on the csproj
+system, the .csproj files are generated from the actual Makefile
+settings.
+
+This requires a couple of steps: 
 
        * Extract the order, compiler and compilation flags for all
-         managed code in Mono.
+         managed code in Mono on Linux by using the existing Makefile
+         system.
 
        * Generate csproj files from the previous step
 
-       * Support the generated csproj file
-
 The idea is to ensure that we do not miss any compilation flag,
 define, resource, reference, icon or any other element that might be
 necessary to build the Mono class libraries.
@@ -27,16 +36,64 @@ necessary to build the Mono class libraries.
        With this input, it is possible to generate an XML file, to do
        this do:
 
-                 make package-inputs
+                 make package-inputs
 
        This will generate order.xml, this contains the ordered list in
        which directories must be compiled as well as the command line
        options used to build it.
 
-* Generate csproj files
+* Generate .csproj and .sln files
+
+       Run the genproj.exe executable in this directory.
+
+          On Windows:
+               cd msvc/scripts/
+               /cygdrive/c/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/MSBuild.exe genproj.csproj
+               ./genproj.exe
+
+          On Mac:
+               cd msvc/scripts/
+               make genproj.exe
+               mono genproj.exe
+               
+       One output of genproj is the solutions for the successive profiles, 
+       like net_4_x.sln.
+
+       The command
+               ./genproj.exe -h 
+       lists a couple of options, notably to limit the scope of 
+       the output solutions for each profiles to System*.dll assemblies 
+       and dependencies.
 
+* Compiling from Visual Studio
+
+       Before you try to compile from Visual Studio, you are *strongly* 
+       advised to set the maximum number of parallel project builds 
+       to 1 (Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Build and Run)
+       Due to the iterative building process for some of Mono's 
+       assemblies, there can be clashes writing to /obj/Debug for 
+       some projects
+
+* KNOWN ISSUES
+
+       * We are currently not running "sn" to sign the assemblies
        
+       * We do not have an "install" target, perhaps we should generate
+       this based on something similar to the update-csproj setup
+
+       * Audit: every Makefile for "local" changes, as those are not
+        visible to this tool.
 
+* OLD KNOWN ISSUES
+
+       * Many assemblies still fail to compile, due to missing project 
+       references output by genproj, or other issues yet to determine
+       
+       * The first build of a solution may have a large number of 
+       failing compilations, more than subsequent solution Builds
+       
+       * The .NET 2.0 profile assemblies end up targetting the 
+       v4.0 runtime, even when requesting 2.0 in the csproj file
+       (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msbuild/
+       thread/6c9cd0e1-7fb8-480a-b006-f034b5926e03)
 
-To generate the "order" file, run the command: make csproj in the mcs directory on a fully
-configured Mono setup (Linux or Cygwin)