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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-31T12:21:42+00:00

I have just started looking into msbuild, because I want to make my own

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I have just started looking into msbuild, because I want to make my own build scripts. For now I am able to create build scripts that compiles only one project, but how do I handle dependencies?

For example what if I have two projects that gets build with these two msbuild scripts?

  1. projectA.xml
  2. projectB.xml

How do I tell msbuild that when I am executing projectB.xml that it should first execute projectA.xml?

I have googled alot on this, but it does not seem to get anything that a starter like me understands. I would be more than happy with a link to an article describing this, or maybe just a small code example.

The reason why I want this control is because of a library I am building. The library consists of several projects. A developer should be able to pull the source code for the library down and build only the libraries that he wants.

Actually I want to be able to build .net modules from the different projects. That is why I want to be able to run a customized msbuild script.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I setup my build scripts so that I have a few common targets that do not do anything, but use DependsOnTargets to setup project dependencies and run the build. 

    <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <!-- ************************************************************************************************ -->
  <!-- Targets that run the builds -->
  <!-- ************************************************************************************************ -->
  <Target Name="AutoBuild" DependsOnTargets="BuildProject1;BuildProject2;BuildInstallers">
    <OnError ExecuteTargets="NotifyFailure" />
  </Target>
  <Target Name="FullCompile" DependsOnTargets="BuildProject1;BuildProject2">
    <OnError ExecuteTargets="NotifyFailure" />
  </Target>

  <!-- Build Project 1 -->
  <Target Name="BuildProject1">
    <!-- Use MSBuild task and point it to build project1.csproj, project1.sln or whatever your projects is -->
  </Target>

  <!-- Build Project 2 -->
  <Target Name="BuildProject2">
    <!-- Use MSBuild task and point it to build project2.csproj, project2.sln or whatever your projects is -->
  </Target>

  <Target Name="BuildInstallers">
    <!-- Whatever logic you have for building installers -->
  </Target>

</Project>
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