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Are Visual Studio pre-build events guaranteed to finish before compiling starts?

Answer 1

+3 A:

Yes. But note that if you have more than one step in your pre-build, only the last step will be checked for errors. See Gotcha! Visual Studio Pre/Post-Build Events for more info.

Duncan Bayne 2010-01-04 00:47:18

Thanks and thank for the tip! +1 There seems to be a little disagreement here, though. Take a look at EricLaw's comment (above).

DanM 2010-01-04 03:25:24

We're both right :-) If you call a batch file that itself spawns asynch processes, then the batch file itself is guaranteed to complete, but the asynch processes are not. If you want your batch file to wait for spawned processes, use "start /wait".

Duncan Bayne 2010-01-04 04:01:27

Ahh, thx :) I don't believe I have any async processes. Is using `start /wait` equivalent to not using `start` at all? I'm basically just running a couple .exe's that take a few seconds and doing a couple rename and move operations.

DanM 2010-01-04 04:24:24

start /wait is almost the same as using no start at all. However, it opens a new window for the spawned process. If that is not required, then you can just omit it.

Tarydon 2010-01-04 05:15:54

Thanks for all your help!

DanM 2010-01-04 07:52:14

Answer 2

+1 A:

The batch file will complete only after the process it has started has itself completed, unless you use the start command in the batch file. As a simple test, you could just create a batch file like this:

notepad.exe

And set that as your pre-build event. You will see that the build starts only after you shut down notepad.

Tarydon 2010-01-04 04:02:33

+1 Thanks, I don't I use the `start` command in any of my batches.

DanM 2010-01-04 04:24:58

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Are Visual Studio pre-build events guaranteed to finish before compiling starts?

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