visual-studio-build.md

title	ms.custom	description	ms.topic	ms.assetid	ms.author	author	ms.date	monikerRange
Visual Studio Build build and release task	seodec18	Visual Studio Build build and release task for Azure Pipelines and Team Foundation Server (TFS)	reference	11E76804-BA67-4086-9CF1-8CB2887169BA	vijayma	vijayma	10/18/2021	>= tfs-2015

Visual Studio Build task

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Use this task to build with MSBuild and set the Visual Studio version property. Learn more about installing Visual Studio images on Azure.

Demands

msbuild, visualstudio

Azure Pipelines: If your team wants to use Visual Studio 2017 with the Microsoft-hosted agents, select vs2017-win2016 as your default build pool. See Microsoft-hosted agents.

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YAML snippet

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Arguments

Argument	Description
solution Solution	(Required) If you want to build a single solution, click the ... button and select the solution. If you want to build multiple solutions, specify search criteria. You can use a single-folder wildcard (`*`) and recursive wildcards (`**`). For example, `**.sln` searches for all .sln files in all subdirectories. Make sure the solutions you specify are downloaded by this build pipeline. On the Repository tab: If you use TFVC, make sure that the solution is a child of one of the mappings on the Repository tab. If you use Git, make sure that the project or solution is in your Git repo, and in a branch that you're building. Tips: You can also build MSBuild project (.*proj) files. If you are building a customized MSBuild project file, we recommend you use the MSBuild task instead of the Visual Studio Build task. Default value: **\*.sln
vsVersion Visual Studio Version	To avoid problems overall, you must make sure this value matches the version of Visual Studio used to create your solution. The value you select here adds the /p:VisualStudioVersion={numeric_visual_studio_version} argument to the MSBuild command run by the build. For example, if you select Visual Studio 2015, /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0 is added to the MSBuild command. Azure Pipelines:If your team wants to use Visual Studio 2017 with the Microsoft-hosted agents, select vs2017-win2016 as your default build pool. See Microsoft-hosted agents. Default value: latest
msbuildArgs MSBuild Arguments	(Optional) You can pass additional arguments to MSBuild. For syntax, see MSBuild Command-Line Reference.
platform Platform	(Optional) Specify the platform you want to build such as Win32, x86, x64 or any cpu. Tips: If you are targeting an MSBuild project (.*proj) file instead of a solution, specify AnyCPU (no whitespace). Declare a build variable such as BuildPlatform on the Variables tab (selecting Allow at Queue Time) and reference it here as $(BuildPlatform). This way you can modify the platform when you queue the build and enable building multiple configurations.
configuration Configuration	(Optional) Specify the configuration you want to build such as debug or release. Tip: Declare a build variable such as BuildConfiguration on the Variables tab (selecting Allow at Queue Time) and reference it here as $(BuildConfiguration). This way you can modify the platform when you queue the build and enable building multiple configurations.
clean Clean	(Optional) Set to False if you want to make this an incremental build. This setting might reduce your build time, especially if your codebase is large. This option has no practical effect unless you also set Clean repository to False. Set to True if you want to rebuild all the code in the code projects. This is equivalent to the MSBuild /target:clean argument.
Advanced
maximumCpuCount Build in Parallel	(Optional) If your MSBuild target configuration is compatible with building in parallel, you can optionally check this input to pass the /m switch to MSBuild (Windows only). If your target configuration is not compatible with building in parallel, checking this option may cause your build to result in file-in-use errors, or intermittent or inconsistent build failures. Default value: false
restoreNugetPackages Restore NuGet Packages	(Important) This option is deprecated. Make sure to clear this checkbox and instead use the NuGet Installer build task. Default value: false
msbuildArchitecture MSBuild Architecture	Optionally supply the architecture (x86, x64) of MSBuild to run Tip: Because Visual Studio runs as a 32-bit application, you could experience problems when your build is processed by a build agent that is running the 64-bit version of Team Foundation Build Service. By selecting MSBuild x86, you might resolve these kinds of problems. Default value: x86
logProjectEvents Record Project Details	Optionally record timeline details for each project Default value: true
createLogFile Create Log File	Optionally create a log file (Windows only) Default value: false
logFileVerbosity Log File Verbosity	Optional log file verbosity Default value: normal
customVersion Custom Version	(Optional) Allows setting custom version of Visual Studio. Examples: 15.0, 16.0, 17.0. Tip: Make sure that the required version of Visual Studio is installed in the system. Azure Pipelines: If your team wants to use Visual Studio 2022 with the Microsoft-hosted agents, select windows-2022 as your default build pool. For more info see Microsoft-hosted agents.
Control options

Open source

This task is open source on GitHub. Feedback and contributions are welcome.

FAQ

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