Manually compile complete C# project with multiple files, libraries

Question

I made a bigger-sized project in Microsoft Visual Studio using C#. What happens when I let the IDE build the project: a dll file is created in the /bin directory.

Now I want to manually compile the whole thing in the console (csc compiler). I tried, but it never worked out.

The directories are structured like this: main directory with the actual project files (one 'main file'), a bin directory, and a lib directory with additional .cs files that are referenced in my project.

What do I have to type in the console to get the exact same result as with the IDE builder?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

Answer 1

One way to do it is to use “msbuild” which is an open-source build engine Visual Studio uses for building applications. The project files (.csproj) basically contain various build configurations in an XML format that this engine uses for while building our project. With msbuild you can build your project as follows:

msbuild.exe MyProj.proj /property:Configuration=Debug

It also has a lot of other options and switches that help to build projects manually (See this)

In case performance reasons are what drive you to build manually/selectively, I would like to mention that there is an option to build multiple projects in parallel to speed up the process. There is a “maxcpucount” switch which we can use to define to “msbuild” the maximum number of projects that can be built in parallel (See this). You can use it as follows:

msbuild.exe myproj.proj /maxcpucount:3  

Here are some more properties you can use for better memory management (See this)

If you want to compile individual files to executables (.exe) or libraries (.dll), you may use the CSharp Compiler (csc). It can be used as follows:

Compiles File.cs producing File.exe:

csc File.cs

Compiles File.cs producing File.dll:

csc -target:library File.cs

Compiles File.cs and creates My.exe:

csc -out:My.exe File.cs

Compiles all the C# files in the current directory with optimizations enabled and defines the DEBUG symbol. The output is File2.exe:

csc -define:DEBUG -optimize -out:File2.exe *.cs

Compiles all the C# files in the current directory producing a debug version of File2.dll. No logo and no warnings are displayed:

csc -target:library -out:File2.dll -warn:0 -nologo -debug *.cs

Compiles all the C# files in the current directory to Something.xyz (a DLL):

csc -target:library -out:Something.xyz *.cs

More details here

However, I would not recommend compiling each and every file manually. It can be done, using the commands mentioned above but would require you to write a very long shell script.

Answer 2

To compile multiple files using csc simply pass the name/path of the cs files to the csc commands.

Let's say you have the cs files:

• Program.cs
• ExtraCode.cs

And they are dependent on the following dll files:

• MyCommonClasses.dll
• DataAccess.dll

use the command

csc Program.cs ExtraCode.cs /r:MyCommonClasses.dll /r:DataAccess.dll /t:exe /out:MyProgram.exe

to create the exe MyProgram.exe.

More info can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/compiler-options/command-line-building-with-csc-exe

With a list of commands here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/compiler-options/listed-by-category