Question

C# CSC.exe

If we give it a C# file, a .CS , is it able to compile it and say for example a “;” is missing at line 12 of your code? In a form that later in my program – which is Java RCP app, I can show those compile errors in a Spreadsheet

How about MSBuild? Is that able to show compile errors same as my previous example?

Answer 1

Say this is your code (program.cs):

namespace MyCustomBuild
{
     class Program
     {
         static void Main(string[] args)
         {
             System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World")
         }
     }
}

You can call csc program.cs and receive the following output

Microsoft (R) Visual C# 2010 Compiler version 4.0.30319.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

program.cs(7,52): error CS1002: ; expected

Alternatively you can use msbuild to achieve the exact same result! Here is the content of build.msbuild

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Target Name="Default">
     <Csc Sources="program.cs"/> 
  </Target>
</Project>

You can then call your msbuild file with varying levels of verbosity, as shown.

msbuild build.msbuild /verbosity:quiet and msbuild build.msbuild /verbosity:minimal

Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.269]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.

program.cs(7,52): error CS1002: ; expected [<filePath>\build.msbuild]

msbuild build.msbuild /verbosity:normal:

Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.269]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.

Build started 6/6/2012 12:13:00 PM.
Project "<filePath>\build.msbuild" on node 1 (default targets).
Default:
  C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Csc.exe /out:program.exe program.cs
program.cs(7,52): error CS1002: ; expected [<filePath>\build.msbuild]
Done Building Project "<filePath>\build.msbuild" (default targets) -- FAILED.

Build FAILED.

"<filePath>\build.msbuild" (default target) (1) ->
(Default target) -> 
  program.cs(7,52): error CS1002: ; expected ["<filePath>\build.msbuild]

    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.28

The remaining two verbosity levels are detailed and diagnostic and they present even more information if you want it. I’m not sure how much information you want for your spreadsheet, but hopefully one of these works for you.