Before and AfterBuild Target in Visual Studio not firing

msbuild, visual-studio-2010

Solution

Your build events are firing, you're just not seeing them in Visual Studio.

By default VS sets the msbuild verbosity to `minimal`. You can get your message to show by changing the message importance to `high`

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  <Message Text="### BeforeBuild ###"  Importance="high" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
  <Message Text="### AfterBuild ###" Importance="high" />
</Target>

You can also change the verbosity setting in VS under Tools->Options then under Projects and Solutions->Build and Run.

Problem

I am doing the following: - I have created a default class file project - Edited the csproj file to include Pre and Post BuildEvents - Uncomment the default commented out BeforeBuild and AfterBuild targets The BeforeBuild and AfterBuild targets are not called form within Visual Studio but are from msbuild command line, why is that? I would rather use msbuild targets rather than the PostBuildEvent as if gives me more power and flexibility, assuming it works. Cheers, adam I shortened some of the paths in the output, so if they are inconsistent that is why ClassLibrary1.csproj changes ``` <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> <Target Name="BeforeBuild"> <Message Text="### BeforeBuild ###" /> </Target> <Target Name="AfterBuild"> <Message Text="### AfterBuild ###" /> </Target> <PropertyGroup> <PreBuildEvent>echo PRE_BUILD</PreBuildEvent> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup> <PostBuildEvent>echo POST_BUILD</PostBuildEvent> </PropertyGroup> ``` my build output from VS 2010 is ``` ------ Rebuild All started: Project: ClassLibrary1, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------ PRE_BUILD ClassLibrary1 -> c:\ClassLibrary1\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll POST_BUILD ========== Rebuild All: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ========== ``` and from the command line ``` #>msbuild ClassLibrary1.sln Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1 [Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.239] Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved. Build started 09/05/2012 13:27:42. Project "c:.sln" on node 1 (default targets). ValidateSolutionConfiguration: Building solution configuration "Debug|Any CPU". Project "c:.sln" (1) is building "c:\ClassLibrary1.csproj" (2) on node 1 (default targets). BeforeBuild: ### BeforeBuild ### PreBuildEvent: echo PRE_BUILD PRE_BUILD GenerateTargetFrameworkMonikerAttribute: Skipping target "GenerateTargetFrameworkMonikerAttribute" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files. CoreCompile: Skipping target "CoreCompile" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files. CopyFilesToOutputDirectory: ClassLibrary1 -> c:\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll PostBuildEvent: echo POST_BUILD POST_BUILD AfterBuild: ### AfterBuild ### Done Building Project "c:\ClassLibrary1.csproj" (default targets). Done Building Project "c:.sln" (default targets). Build succeeded. 0 Warning(s) 0 Error(s) Time Elapsed 00:00:00.18 ```

Original source