How to use external build system for Visual C++ 2013 project?

Question

Is it possible to use an external build system for VC++ 2013? I want Visual Studio do nothing but build by invoking my build tools.

I am thinking about something like this:

• Put all build command in batches.
• Invoke a project-level build batch by right clicking the project and choose build.

• Invoke the a solution-level build batch by right clicking the solution and choose build.

  Is there some walk-through tutorial? I searched a lot but no luck.

ADD 1 - Some progress...

After briefly reading about the MSBuild process, I tried as below.

First, I edit the *.vcxproj project file. I change the DefaultTargets from Build to MyTarget.

<Project DefaultTargets="MyTarget" ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

Then I add a new target named MyTarget:

  <Target Name="MyTarget">
    <Message Text="Hello, Bitch!" />
  </Target>

I hope this can bypass the VS2013 built-in built process and only carry out my own batch.

It works well on command prompt:

But in Visual Studio, when I right click the project and choose build command, it gives me a lot of link errors.

How to avoid these link errors? Since my batch can take care of all the build process, I don't need Visual Studio to do the link for me.

ADD 2

It seems these link errors show up because I include the *.c files with the ClCompile tag as below.

<ItemGroup>
   <ClCompile Include="z:\MyProject1\source1.c" />
<ItemGroup>

Since I don't want VS2013 to invoke the compiler, I change it to <ClInclude> tag, the link errors disappeared, but the symbol resolution is not working... Seems I shouldn't change the tag.

ADD 3

Here's another way to compile without linking.

Is it possible for Visual Studio C++ to compile objects without linking

Seems it doesn't have the symbol resolution issue. But I still cannot invoke an external batch by click build/rebuild/clean.

Answer 1

You might want to look into Visual Studio's makefile projects (in the Visual C++/General project templates category).

You get to specify what commands to execute for each type of build (clean, build, rebuild). The command can invoke a make, run a batch file, or invoke some other build tool. It just executes a command. The commands can contain various macros that VS provides (similar to environment variables) so the command can be parametrized for things like making a target directory based on the solution or project name or type (debug vs. release).