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Obtaining MSBuild to Compile a Project with Dependencies for Win32 and Win64 Platforms

I have a large solution with over 10 projects in it in C ++.

The whole solution is x64 only except for project P , which requires both x64 and win32 versions (the corresponding one is loaded at runtime).

The P project depends on several other projects for lib files: C and H , which are compiled into libraries.

P has a reference to C and H as follows:

<ProjectReference Include="..\C\C.vcxproj">
   <Project>{....}</Project>
</ProjectReference>
<ProjectReference Include="..\H\H.vcxproj">
   <Project>{....}</Project>
</ProjectReference>

I want to create a P project for both platforms.

I decided to do it from a meta-P project that calls P :

<MSBuild Projects="..\P\P.vcxproj" Properties="Platform=Win32"/>
<MSBuild Projects="..\P\P.vcxproj" Properties="Platform=x64"/>

This allows developers to freely modify P , and then both versions are created at once, creating a meta-P .

The problem is that when meta-P calls MSBuild in project P, references to C and H depend on the Solution environment (in which the active platform is always x64).

When it comes to linking Win32 P to its correct C.lib and H.lib , the open solution configuration opens and studio tries to link it to the x64 version and fails.

I temporarily solved it using the exec task in Meta P- , MsBuild.exe to run directly on the P . This ignored the properties of the Visual Studio environment.

What was the correct solution to read the platform correctly?

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2 answers


The correct solution is to add the undocumented ShouldUnsetParentConfigurationAndPlatform property and set it to false .

The only correct place to put it is inside each Project Reference in Project P , otherwise it is ignored.

So it looks like this:



<ProjectReference Include="..\C\C.vcxproj">
  <Project>{....}</Project>
  <Properties>ShouldUnsetParentConfigurationAndPlatform=false</Properties>
</ProjectReference>
<ProjectReference Include="..\H\H.vcxproj">
  <Project>{....}</Project>
  <Properties>ShouldUnsetParentConfigurationAndPlatform=false</Properties>
</ProjectReference>

This forces Visual Studio to follow with C and H inherited properties instead of reading from the solution environment.

Edit: See the helpful link from the comment: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/blob/98d38cb/src/XMakeTasks/AssignProjectConfiguration.cs#L198-L218

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I'm not sure if you need Meta-P. At work, we had a similar problem.

In P, we added an ItemGroup with two vcxprojs:

<CppProjects Include="...\P64.vcxproj">
  <Properties>Platform=x64</Properties>
</CppProjects>
<CppProjects Include="...\P32.vcxproj">
  <Properties>Platform=Win32</Properties>
</CppProjects>


Platform metadata will invoke the expected platform.

Then add the build dependency to P.csproj with:

<Target Name="BuildCpp" BeforeTargets="Build">
  <MSBuild Projects="@(CppProjects)" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration)" RemoveProperties="Platform" />
</Target>
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