How do you reference the solution folder in .targets?

Question

I have a custom tool that I run on certain file types using the .targets mechanism in Visual Studio 2015.

Projects exist at many levels, and I want to reference this tool when the code is pulled to ANY drive/folder, including the TFS CI agent.

I tried using a relative path, but because the files are at different levels, it doesn't work for all projects.

I tried using a registry setting and environment variable, but that doesn't bode well for the CI machine which might build in a different folder each time.

Is it possible to get the solution folder of which the project/file is in, then I can use a relative path to the tool directory?

All I can find is these properties, which do not seem to help: General MSBuild properties: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629394.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164309.aspx

Registry and environment variables: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171458.aspx

Answer 1

You can use all the standard tokens within .targets. Just use

$(SolutionDir)

See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs.aspx