Running the Clean, Build and Rebuild through the Package Manager Console

Question

I want to run the Clean, Build and Rebuild commands through the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio but so far I haven't been able to find how.

The following command gets me the first project inside the solution:

$project = Get-Project | select -First 1

When I run the $project | Get-Member, I can see the members of $project item.

#Members of the $project ($project | Get-Member)

#   TypeName: System.__ComObject#{866311e6-c887-4143-9833-645f5b93f6f1}
#
#Name                 MemberType            Definition                                                                                                                                   
#----                 ----------            ----------                                                                                                                                   
#ProjectName          CodeProperty          System.String ProjectName{get=GetCustomUniqueName;}                                                                                          
#Delete               Method                void Delete ()                                                                                                                               
#Save                 Method                void Save (string)                                                                                                                           
#SaveAs               Method                void SaveAs (string)                                                                                                                         
#Extender             ParameterizedProperty IDispatch Extender (string) {get}                                                                                                            
#CodeModel            Property              CodeModel CodeModel () {get}                                                                                                                 
#Collection           Property              Projects Collection () {get}                                                                                                                 
#ConfigurationManager Property              ConfigurationManager ConfigurationManager () {get}                                                                                           
#DTE                  Property              DTE DTE () {get}                                                                                                                             
#ExtenderCATID        Property              string ExtenderCATID () {get}                                                                                                                
#ExtenderNames        Property              Variant ExtenderNames () {get}                                                                                                               
#FileName             Property              string FileName () {get}                                                                                                                     
#FullName             Property              string FullName () {get}                                                                                                                     
#Globals              Property              Globals Globals () {get}                                                                                                                     
#IsDirty              Property              bool IsDirty () {get} {set}                                                                                                                  
#Kind                 Property              string Kind () {get}                                                                                                                         
#Name                 Property              string Name () {get} {set}                                                                                                                   
#Object               Property              IDispatch Object () {get}                                                                                                                    
#ParentProjectItem    Property              ProjectItem ParentProjectItem () {get}                                                                                                       
#ProjectItems         Property              ProjectItems ProjectItems () {get}                                                                                                           
#Properties           Property              Properties Properties () {get}                                                                                                               
#Saved                Property              bool Saved () {get} {set}                                                                                                                    
#UniqueName           Property              string UniqueName () {get}                                                                                                                   
#Type                 ScriptProperty        System.Object Type {get=switch ($this.Kind) {...       

I am not sure if I can get to the Clean Build and Rebuild method through the $project item or if I should I directly run the msbuild by targeting the project path.

Any idea?

Answer 1

Visual Studio's object model provides a way to build the entire solution or a single project via the SolutionBuild object.

Building the solution is straightforward from the NuGet Package Manager Console.

$dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.Clean($true)
$dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.Build($true)

The $true flag indicates that the command should wait for the clean/build to finish.

Building an individual project is not as straightforward. The SolutionBuild object provides a BuildProject method which takes three parameters.

$project = Get-Project | select -First 1
$dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.BuildProject("Debug", $project.FullName, $true)

It also does not allow you to run a Clean build.

If you want to build an individual project then, as Pavel suggests, using MSBuild seems to be more straighforward.