Visual studio 2008 creates a additional bin\debug folder although I have no pre/post build events defined?

Question

I have this structure:

Projects
|-bin
|-Project1
|-Project2
.....|-crapBin

When I build my solution from project1+2 all the built binaries goes into the bin. But additionally some binaries are also put into the crapBin folder although I have not set this path as output path of any project. Furthermore I have not defined any pre/post build events etc...

What is wrong?

Answer 1

Edit (Completely reworked, refined, improved answer):

With some experimentation I noticed this: When I enter the output folder as "binFoo\Debug\" and "binFoo\Release\" respectively, I get the additional folder as well.

However, when I enter them as ".\binFoo\Debug\" and ".\binFoo\Release" and save the project properties then the additional folder will no longer be created in my environment. Note that as soon as you re-open the project properties the entries for the output folder no longer show the leading ".\". However, from then onwards it builds into the new folder.

I tested this with creating one solution and then adding two C# class library projects to that solution.

Good luck with the hunt!

Answer 2

VS2008 always compiles into the ProjectXXX\bin folder and copies the component after a successfull build to the output directory which you specify in the project properties.

------ Build started: Project: TestProject, Configuration: Debug x86 ------ C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Csc.exe /noconfig /nowarn:1701,1702 /platform:x86 ...

Compile complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets(2606,9): error MSB3021: Unable to copy file "obj\x86\Debug\TestProject.dll" to "C:\OutputDirectory\TestProject.dll". The process cannot access the file 'C:\OutputDirectory\TestProject.dll' because it is being used by another process.

Done building project "TestProject.csproj" -- FAILED.

========== Build: 0 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========