Does Msbuild recognise any build configurations other than DEBUG|RELEASE

Question

I created a configuration named Test via Visual Studio which currently just takes all of DEBUG settings, however I employ compiler conditions to determine some specific actions if the build happens to be TEST|DEBUG|RELEASE.

However how can I get my MSBUILD script to detect the TEST configuration??

Currently I build

 <MSBuild Projects="@(SolutionsToBuild)" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration);OutDir=$(BuildDir)\Builds\" /> 

Where @(SolutionsToBuild) is a my solution. In the Common MsBuild Project Properties it states that $(Configuration) is a common property but it always appears blank?

Does this mean that it never gets set but is simply reserved for my use or that it can ONLY detect DEBUG|RELEASE. If so what is the point in allowing the creation of different build configurations?

Answer 1

I haven't done much with defining an MSBUILD configuration file but I have done builds of different configurations using a batch file like this

msbuild /v:n /p:Configuration=Release "Capture.sln"  msbuild /v:n /p:Configuration=ReleaseNoUploads "Capture.sln"  

I defined the ReleaseNoUploads configuration inside Visual Studio.

Here's what I had to do for that (this is Visual Studio 2005):

• Open the Tools:Options menu, go to the Projects and Solutions:General option, and check Show advanced build configurations.
• From there, go to the Build:Configuration Manager menu
• In the dialog that pops up, click on the Active solution configuration pulldown and click <New...> to create a new build configuration.

Answer 2

Sure, you can have as many custom build configurations as you want to define. See this related question for how the setup might look.

How to conditionally deploy an app.config based on build configuration?