Which files are required for a Visual Studio project?

Question

I'd like to use git to manage my various Visual Studio projects. Unfortunately they seem to consist of a multitude of files beyond the one or two .cs files my code is contained in.

Which of these files is actually required to build the project?

Answer 1

All you need are the project and solution files. csproj, vbproj, sln.

edit

I meant in addition to the actual files inside the projects.

Answer 2

.csproj, assemblyinfo.cs, plus your code and solution (.sln) file.

Also, you might take a look at cleansoureplus from Jeff. This program will clean out all unnecessary files and folders.

Answer 3

I think it's easier to look at a Visual Studio project and know what to exclude from a project. There are too many different flavors of visual studio projects to possibly list all of the file types which are important. However the unimportant files usually follow a specific pattern.

In general I exclude the following directories and files

Directories:

• bin
• obj

Files Extensions:

• *.suo
• *.sdf
• *.user
• *.obj
• *.dll
• *.exe

Answer 4

Be sure to look in the project file to see what files are part of it.

Answer 5

You should only need:

• *.cs code files
• the .csproj file
• any form files (.cs, Designer.cs, and .resx)
• the Properties directory and contents (AssemblyInfo.cs)