NAnt Alternatives [closed]

Question

I've been using NAnt for a while but it seems to be overly complex for what I need. I was wondering if there are any alternatives around for building C# projects?

Answer 1

I would say once you get started in NAnt it is not THAT complex. I was missing a little bit a good "let's get me started" tutorial and everything I read felt pretty dated. A good thing is that you can use MSBuild for building the application (that is what I am using) and doing the rest with NAnt.

At least I think it is not harder than MSBuild - and for things MSBuild is easier you are free to use MSBuild for that.

This is what I am using:

<exec program="msbuild.exe" 
      basedir="C:\windows\microsoft.net\Framework\v3.5\" 
      commandline="Project.csproj /p:OutDir=..\Outdir\; configuration=Release" />

Answer 2

There are some great alternatives now to NAnt and MSBuild.

nRake (or just Rake)

http://jamescrisp.org/2010/03/20/nrake-rake-builds-for-net/

psake -- build automation tool written in PowerShell

http://jameskovacs.com/2008/06/27/introducing-psake/

I've personally used NAnt and MSBuild and am anxiously awaiting our upcoming switch to one of these (we haven't decided yet which). NAnt and MSBuild are not that hard to start off with, but once build scripts start getting bigger and more complicated and you need to actually debug them, they become a huge burden to deal with. It really depends on how much you're automating.