TeamCity builds are failing, how do I resolve "Failed to start MSBuild.exe. Failed to find project file at path"?

Question

I'm new to TeamCity, trying to get it to build for the first time. I installed TeamCity Professional 8.1.4 (build 30168) yesterday and set up my first TeamCity project.

The Visual Studio solution is on GitHub. It's a very simple "Hello World" console app. It builds and runs locally.

When I submit a change to GitHub, the build in TeamCity is triggered. So, the trigger works.

The build configuration contains one step. It's MSBuild. THe Build File Path is %env.BUILD_NUMBER%. The MSBuild Version is Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5, MSBuild ToolsVersion 4, Run Platform x86. No .NET coverage tool specified. This should be a simple build: Get Latest and build it.

Here is the message detail:

Failed to start MSBuild.exe. Failed to find project file at path: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e\2

And here is the build log, timestamps removed:

TeamCity server version is 8.1.4 (build 30168)
Skip checking for changes - there are no VCS roots defined
Agent time zone: America/Chicago
Agent is running under JRE: 1.7.0_51-b13
Publishing internal artifacts
[Publishing internal artifacts] Sending using WebPublisher
[Publishing internal artifacts] Sending using ArtifactsCachePublisher
Clearing temporary directory: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\temp\buildTmp
Checkout directory: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e
Step 1/1: MSBuild
[Step 1/1] ##teamcity[buildStatisticValue key='buildStageDuration:firstStepPreparation' value='95.0']
[Step 1/1] ##teamcity[buildStatisticValue key='buildStageDuration:buildStepRUNNER_4' value='0.0']
[Step 1/1] Starting: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\plugins\dotnetPlugin\bin\JetBrains.BuildServer.MsBuildBootstrap.exe /workdir:C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e /msbuildPath:C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
[Step 1/1] in directory: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e
[Step 1/1] Failed to start MSBuild.exe. Failed to find project file at path: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e\2
[Step 1/1] Process exited with code -42
[Step 1/1] ##teamcity[buildStatisticValue key='buildStageDuration:buildStepRUNNER_4' value='792.0']
[Step 1/1] Step MSBuild failed
##teamcity[buildStatisticValue key='buildStageDuration:buildFinishing' value='5.0']
Publishing internal artifacts
[Publishing internal artifacts] Sending using WebPublisher
[Publishing internal artifacts] Sending using ArtifactsCachePublisher
##teamcity[buildStatisticValue key='buildStageDuration:artifactsPublishing' value='30.0']
Build finished

Answer 1

The error says it can't find the project file to build, which it is looking at C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\3de96e708f2408e\2 Probably you haven't specified the path to build file. You need a setup like below in your MSBuild Teamcity Step.

The path should be relative to the check out directory.