3 xbuild \- Mono's tool to build MSBuild project files
6 [option] [project-file]
8 xbuild can be used to build MSBuild project files. Integrated Development
9 Environments like MonoDevelop and "Microsoft Visual Studio .NET" use msbuild
12 xbuild takes the path of the project or solution file to build, as the main argument.
13 If no file is specified then it tries to build any solution file or project file in
14 the current directory, that has a *proj extension.
18 List of targets to build
20 .B \//property:Name=Value
21 Set or override project properties
24 Custom logger to log build events
26 .B \//toolsversion:version , /tv:version
27 Specify the toolset version to use.
30 This would cause 4.0 version of the Microsoft.Common.targets (among others) to be used. This overrides
31 the value specified in a project file.
33 Valid values: 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0
35 .B \//verbosity:<level>
36 Logger verbosity level : quiet, minimal, normal, detailed, diagnostic
39 Validate the project file against the schema
41 .B \//validate:<schema>
42 Validate the project file against the specified schema
44 .B \//consoleloggerparameters:<params>
45 Parameters for the console logger : PerfomanceSummary, NoSummary, NoItemAndPropertyList
48 Don't show the initial xbuild banner
54 Display xbuild version
55 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
57 .I "XBUILD_EMIT_SOLUTION"
58 If this variable is set, then the project file generated from a solution
61 .I "XBUILD_LOG_REFERENCE_RESOLVER"
62 References are resolved by trying a list of assembly search paths ($(AssemblySearchPaths)).
63 If xbuild is unable to resolve a reference, then it logs details of why the various
64 search paths failed. If this variable is set, then it logs the same even for references
65 that were resolved successfully. These logs show up if the verbosity is set to detailed
68 .I "MSBuildExtensionsPath"
69 MSBuild extensions are usually installed in $(MSBuildExtensionsPath), which xbuild resolves
70 to $prefix/lib/mono/xbuild . When used in Import, like:
72 <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\\TestTargets.targets"/>
74 xbuild tries various values for the msbuild property $(MSBuildExtensionsPath), in order:
76 1. Paths specified in the environment variable $MSBuildExtensionsPath.
77 2. /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/External/xbuild on Mac OSX.
78 3. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xbuild/tasks (or Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
79 4. $prefix/lib/mono/xbuild (default location)
81 Anywhere else in the project files, $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) will always resolve to the default
82 location. This is a xbuild-only feature.
83 This is also applicable for the properties $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32) and $(MSBuildExtensionsPath64),
84 and the environment variables have the corresponding names - MSBuildExtensionsPath32/64 .
86 .I "XBUILD_FRAMEWORK_FOLDERS_PATH"
87 With ToolsVersion 4.0, projects can target arbitrary frameworks referenced by TargetFrameworkMoniker,
88 which is of the format:
90 Identifier,Version=<version>[,Profile=<profile>]
92 Eg. ".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"
94 The 3 parts of the moniker are given by the msbuild properties:
96 $(TargetFrameworkIdentifier), $(TargetFrameworkVersion) and $(TargetFrameworkProfile)
98 This moniker maps to a framework description file on disk:
100 <framework_root>/Identifier/Version/[Profile]/RedistList/FrameworkList.xml
102 Framework root here is configurable and is resolved in the following order:
105 1. Paths specified in the environment variable $XBUILD_FRAMEWORK_FOLDERS_PATH
106 2. /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/External/xbuild-frameworks on Mac OSX.
107 3. MSBuild property $(TargetFrameworkRoot)
108 4. $prefix/lib/mono/xbuild-frameworks (default location)
111 XBuild tries the paths given above, in order, till it finds a FrameworkList.xml for the moniker.
112 Running with /v:detailed or higher verbosity will show the various paths that it tries.
115 If this variable is set, it contains a string of the form
116 "type=foreground,type=.." that specifies which color to use to display
117 errors/warnings etc on some terminals. Type here can be:
120 errors, warnings, messages or events
122 events: These are project/target/task start and end event
127 The possible colors for foreground are:
128 .B black, red, brightred, green, brightgreen, yellow, brightyellow,
129 blue, brightblue, magenta, brightmagenta, cyan, brightcyan, grey,
130 white and brightwhite.
133 For example, you could set this variable from your shell:
136 XBUILD_COLORS=errors=brightred,warnings=blue
140 You can disable the built-in color scheme by setting this variable to
144 On Mac OSX, for locating pkg-config (.pc) files, xbuild additionally
145 looks in "/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/External/pkgconfig" .
150 Copyright (C) 2009 Novell, Inc (http://www.novell.com)
152 Visit http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-devel-list for details.
154 Visit: http://www.mono-project.com for details