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The key to executing a batch file directly in Visual Studio is to Add one using the External Tools selection of the Tools menu. To do this, you: Create a simple batch program that executes other batch programs. Reference that program using the External Tools selection in Visual Studio.
Pre/Post build events are useful when we wish to perform some operations before/after a project is built. These operations are nothing but the Shell commands being used from the command line. Think of a scenario where we build our library project and its . dll is saved into the Project/bin/Release directory.
Sure, here's an example:
call "$(SolutionDir)scripts\copyifnewer.bat" "$(SolutionDir)libs\RLPL.Services.CertificateValidator.Basic.dll" "$(TargetDir)RLPL.Services.CertificateValidator.Basic.dll"
call "$(SolutionDir)scripts\copyifnewer.bat" "$(SolutionDir)libs\RLPL.Services.CertificateValidator.Common.dll" "$(TargetDir)RLPL.Services.CertificateValidator.Common.dll"
Just be aware of two possible issues you might have:
the enclosing double quotes (see how each part is surrounded by " sign)
if you want to call 2 or more batch files make sure you use call command otherwise you'll have a trouble finding why the second bat is not doing its job
Yes, by adding a call to it in the post-build event editor.
If you go to the Properties page for your project, you should select the Build Events tab. You can type in the call to your batch file in the Post-build event command line text box.
If you want to refer to the batch file using the paths included in the project or solution, you can click on the Edit Post-Build... button. This will open the Post-build Event Command Line dialog box.
This dialog box has a Macros >> button that you can click. It will show you all the available Macros that you can use to refer to folders and files within your solution.
When you select one of those macros, you can use the Insert button to insert them into your script.
As well as calling a .bat file, you can enter batch commands (i.e., the normal commands available from the Windows console--cmd.exe) directly into the Pre-build/Post-build fields. This may be preferable as it means you do not have to maintain the batch file separately, as all your commands will be part of the project.
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