Autogenerated IntermediateOutputPath in the .csproj file

Question

After updating the code from Git I have an error in the csproj, because the file path doesn't exist. Here is the code which initiates the error:

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'ZAL_Release|x64'">
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <OutputPath>..\Release\bin\soft\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>TRACE;ZAL</DefineConstants>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <CodeAnalysisRuleSet>MinimumRecommendedRules.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
    <Optimize>true</Optimize>
    <IntermediateOutputPath>C:\Users\HARRY~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vs543E.tmp\x64\ZAL_Release\</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>

This filepath exists on Harry's computer, but not on mine. The guy with this name has no idea how he created this, so I assume Visual Studio created it. That's why I have three questions:

1. What's the goal of IntermediateOutputPath tag in the csproj? (I already checked MSDN documentation, but still not clear)

2. How did Harry generat the code (because he doesn't know)?

3. Is it possible to use a generic variable to get a file path that everybody could use? In the case, is this IntermediateOutputPath mandatory for the program to run?

Answer 1

1. An OutputPath in your project file

   Specifies the path to the output directory, relative to the project directory, for example, "bin\Debug".

   The BaseOutputPath

   Specifies the base path for the output file. If it is set, MSBuild will use OutputPath = $(BaseOutputPath)\$(Configuration). Example syntax: c:\xyz\bin\

   The BaseIntermediateOutputPath

   The top-level folder where all configuration-specific intermediate output folders are created. The default value is obj. The following code is an example: c:\xyz\obj\

   The IntermediateOutputPath

   The full intermediate output path as derived from BaseIntermediateOutputPath, if no path is specified. For example, \obj\debug. If this property is overridden, then setting BaseIntermediateOutputPath has no effect.

   You can read this up here. In general these Paths should be relative and in no way lead to any home folders or other user-specific paths.

2. See this question for an explanation of how the IntermediateOutputPath may have been inserted in your csproj file.

   EDIT: Actually, this is a vague explanation, but I could not find any other info about this. Keep an eye on changes on your csproj file to pin down the reason for the change.

3. You can set IntermediateOutputPath to a relative path. You can, however, also just delete the whole tag and go with the default. In our Visual Studio 2015 project files, we only set the base OutputPath, and everything is working fine. I think the default place for your intermediate objects is /obj.