Building Testing and Debugging on .Net Core MSBuild

These instructions refer to working with the xplat branch.

MSBuild can be successfully built on Windows, OS X, and Ubuntu.

Windows

##Build process##

RebuildWithLocalMSBuild.cmd. This script uses a .NET core hosted MSBuild to target .NET Core and run the tests.

##Debugging##

For debugging tests, use the /d switch for CoreRun.exe. This prompts the core CLR to wait for a debugger to attach. You can attach using Visual Studio.

Unix

Required packages

Mono, when doing a Mono-hosted version of MSBuild

##Build process## Clone the xplat branch:

git clone [email protected]:Microsoft/msbuild.git --branch xplat 

Navigate to the clone's working directory and run your chosen build script:

Targeting .Net Core: ./cibuild.sh --target CoreCLR

Targeting Mono: ./cibuild.sh --target Mono

Using a .NET core MSBuild host: ./cibuild.sh --host CoreCLR

Using a Mono MSBuild host: ./cibuild --host Mono

Default arguments lead to a Mono hosted MSBuild targeting CoreCLR: ./cibuild.sh

##Debugging## On Mac: If you run into an error about "./Tools/corerun", clean your repo using the below command and run your script again.

git clean -xdf

On Ubuntu: If you run into an error about "libunwind.so.8," download the file using the command below and run your script again:

sudo apt-get install libunwind8 

##Tests##

Tests are currently disabled on platforms other than Windows. If you'd like to run them, explicitly opt in with

./cibuild.sh --scope Test

Unofficial: Getting .Net Core MSBuild binaries without building the code

This is a non-ideal, intermediary solution for getting .NET core MSBuild binaries. We plan on improving this experience.

git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild.git
cd msbuild
git fetch --all
git checkout origin/xplat
init-tools.cmd # windows
./init-tools.sh # unix

./Tools/corerun ./Tools/MSBuild.exe /path/to/project