msbuild across different solutions

Question

We've started to separate out our single VS solution into multiple solutions for better maintenance. I am wondering if there is any best practice out there for msbuild script that build across multiple solution that may depend on the same project dll. For example:

solution 1 contains [proj1 and proj2] solution 2 contains [proj3 which needs a reference to proj2]

Logically, solution2 cannot be build until solution1 is built. Also, the reference made to proj2 from solution2 should not be of the /Debug/proj2.dll, rather it should be in some common build folder.

Is there any good article out there on how to configure MSBuild to do this?

Answer 1

Here is a two part MSDN article titled "Best Practices For Creating Reliable Builds"

Part 1 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419659.aspx

Part 2 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd483291.aspx

The last section of the second part talks about very large solutions. It's a bit complicated, but there is a code sample to help out.