Install F# 4.1 SDK on build server

Question

I have installed Visual Studio 2017 with F# support on my PC and I have MSBuild targets in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\FSharp and F# 4.1 SDK in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.1

I have installed Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017 (from https://www.visualstudio.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=BuildTools&rel=15 ) but there is no option to install F# SDK so building F# projects using MSBuild 15 fails.

How can I install F# 4.1 SDK without installing Visual Studio?

Answer 1

There is an MSI that can be installed, it's not yet been published on MSDN.
But it will be shortly.

You can track the issue here: on GitHub:

"Deploy FSharp Tools MSI to MSDN #2553" https://github.com/Microsoft/visualfsharp/issues/2553

Kevin Ransom

Answer 2

A short term fix until the SDK can be installed separately is to add a directive to the project file to look in the NuGet packages folder for the Microsoft.FSharp.Targets file. Here are steps I took to fix this:

Ensure your using the new F# project from VS.NET 2017 as its has this directive:

<Import Project="..\packages\FSharp.Compiler.Tools.4.1.17\build\FSharp.Compiler.Tools.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\FSharp.Compiler.Tools.4.1.17\build\FSharp.Compiler.Tools.props')" />

Replace this section of the project file:

<Choose>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.3.0.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.3.1.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.0\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.3.1.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.4.0.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.1\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.4.0.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.4.1.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.0\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <Otherwise>
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.1\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </Otherwise>
</Choose>

With this XML:

  <Choose>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.3.0.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.3.1.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.0\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.3.1.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.4.0.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.1\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <When Condition="$(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &gt;= 4.4.0.0 AND $(TargetFSharpCoreVersion) &lt; 4.4.1.0 ">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.0\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <Otherwise>
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FSharpTargetsPath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\4.1\Framework\v4.0\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </Otherwise>
  </Choose>
  <!-- This is needed for TeamCity where F# SDK is only available via NuGet right now - hopefully can be removed at some point once the SDK is available for install -->
   <PropertyGroup Condition="!Exists('$(FSharpTargetsPath)')">
    <FSharpTargetsPath>$(FscToolPath)\Microsoft.FSharp.Targets</FSharpTargetsPath>
  </PropertyGroup>

Ensure you build server has a restore NuGet packages step prior to doing the build

Ensure you packages file includes: FSharp.Compiler.Tools and FSharp.Core

The reason this works is as follows: This checks to see if the FSharpTargetsPath exists and if not use the packages folder as the source. You don't want to always use the packages folder otherwise on a fresh checkout on a users machine the packages aren't available and the build will fail. For this to work on the build server this assumes you have a step to restore the NuGet packages PRIOR to doing the build.

Answer 3

It seems it's so new things haven't been updated yet.

• Four step process for installing for a build server (scroll down to Option 3)

http://fsharp.org/use/windows/

(4.0)

• According to the MSDN blog...

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/03/07/announcing-f-4-1-and-the-visual-f-tools-for-visual-studio-2017-2/

Seems you at least need .NET Core / CLI

• Searching on Microsoft's site doesn't seem to find anything...

Closest thing would be the 4.0 tools: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48179

• There are alse the raw NuGet packages (4.1)

https://www.nuget.org/packages/FSharp.Compiler.Tools https://www.nuget.org/packages/FSharp.Core

• Bottom line: I think its so new it hasn't been released in a format similar to previous versions yet. I'll keep checking every 24 hours to see if they update it on their website.