buildbot C++ build on Windows: use devenv.com, vcbuild.exe, or MSBuild.exe?

Question

My buildbot has been running for 3 years using devenv.com to compile the projects on Windows.

Now devenv.com has troubles to build for 64 bits versions: passing the configuration as "Debug|x64" generates command line errors because of the pipe character. Escaping and enclosing between quotes result into other errors, some because of the spaces in the directory names, some because of strangely understood command line.

I tried both vcbuild.exe, and MSBuild.exe. vcbuild.exe works perfectly: I'd like to stick to it. MSBuild.exe, on the other side, has a completely strange and complicated output that my coworkers feel terrible. But it is touted everywhere as THE way to build.

The question is: which of devenv.com, vcbuild.exe, and MSBuild.exe is the method that is most likely to last in time?

Answer 1

MSBuild (before Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4) doesn't itself build C++ projects. It calls out to vcbuild.exe. So if you are happy not using MSBuild then I would stick to that for the C++ projects. For managed projects (and for C++ using VS 2010) use MSBuild.

Answer 2

I ran into the same problem, and solved it by Windows-shell-escaping the pipe character:

"Debug^|Win32"

Answer 3

msbuild.exe does not (did not?) know how to build setup projects. devenv.exe does.

Answer 4

MSBuild is the method "most likely to last". VCBuild.exe is dead; it's last release was 2008. MSBuild 4.0 will still use it, if it needs to build a VC project from VS2008 or earlier. As for devenv.exe -- of course, it's just headless Visual Studio. Functionally it is the same as hitting build in VS. That means that these days, it's essentially just handing off to MSBuild, but sometimes with less parallelism than msbuild.exe will get. The main reason you might still have to use devenv.exe is .vdproj (Deployment) projects. These legacy things have a build process hard coded into VS. I recommend an alternative like WiX or Installshield which are MSBuild based. Not long now until everything build in VS is MSBuild.

In short -- MSBuild is the future, use it unless you have deployment projects or other special circumstances.

Dan