How to deploy custom files on remote PC via Visual Studio Remote Debugger 2012

Question

Debugging on Remote PC can be tricky if you need to deploy many files on that PC.

First of all you need to configure PC, i.e. share folders, configure security to easily copy files from your to test PC.

Then you need a deploy script to actualy copy files. And you need somehow to send target PC ip to it.

In Visual Studio 2012 there is Deploy step then studio can deploy your project's files onto remote PC, but it seems it is only working with "easy" cases then no need to copy files on different folders or rename it to start debugging. It seems that new Remote Debugger has new hidden api to copy files. But it is unavailable from outside of Visual Studio.

If there is a way to use Visual Studio Deploy function to implement "One click Deploy/Debug" procedure?

Answer 1

The answer to the question is somewhat dependent on the type of project you want to deploy. For example, in the C++ project system under Project Properties->Configuration Properties->Debugging->Remote Windows Debugger you can specify a Deployment Directory and Additional Files to Deploy.

If you want to implement your own deployment system, then the answer is yes, you could write a Visual Studio extension, use the deployment API to both copy files and execute anything you required such as a configuration script on the remote machine.