How to build Debug AND Release and still get appropriate error messages?

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2008 Team System 2008 Team Edition.

I want to be able to build my project and actually be told about all errors in the build. So far I have not found a way, so it must be pretty well hidden.

• The normal "Rebuild" command for a project, as well as the "Rebuild solution" command for a solution, rebuilds only the active configuration (Debug or Release), never both.
• Using the Batch Build dialog, as recommended in an answer to an earlier question I posed about the same problem, does not output any errors in the Error Window as I would have expected and just silently continues with the batch build instead of stopping as I would have expected. I had a compile error in my code for weeks without noticing because of this!

How do I get Visual Studio to build both configurations (if both compile) AND output error messages (if either one doesn't compile)?

Answer 1

May be you have to adjust error reporting level? In the GUI, right-click on project, choose Properties, then General->Warning Level (which is set per configuration BTW).

Answer 2

You can't (at least not in VS 2008, any edition).