In one cpp-file I use the __DATE__ macro to get the compile-date.
It gives me the date of the last compile of that file. But as the file is not changed very often, the date is old in most cases, sometimes several months.
What I actually want is the date of the last build of the project.
Is there an setting to force VS2010 to rebuild that single cpp-file on every compile of the project?
Regardless of changes in the file?
The only way I found until now is to modify the file or delete the created obj-file by an script before the build, I would prefer an solution inside VS if that is possible.
You could probably add a Pre-Build Step that touch (see this thread) the file?
To add a Pre-Build Step, open your Project Properties, then Configuration Properties > Build Events > Pre-Build Event then add the command line you want to have executed in Command Line.
Following the suggestion from Amitd, apparently you can also touch the file using PowerShell, see this for explanations.
As suggested by Adrian McCarthy in the comments below, deleting the .obj file would be preferable in the context where source control is used and you want to keep the .cpp read-only. Using the "macros" exposed by Visual Studio, deleting them can be made easy:
del $(TargetDir)sourcefile.obj
Quoted from Cheers and hth. - Alf as another way to achieve this
nmake (bundled with Visual Studio and the SDK) option /t does a touch, it was once the conventional way to do this for Windows programmers.
You can add the following pre-build step, were you simply touch the date stamp of the file. The +,, is a special flag to the copy command, telling it to update the timestamp of the file:
copy file.cpp +,,
As suggested by Adrian McCarthy, you can simply delete the object file every time you build the project.
Therefore, create a pre-build event invoking the del command. According to Microsoft, you can use the $(IntDir) macro to refer to the directory wher the object file is stored (you should not use the $(TargetDir) macro).
I had issues with the return code of the command (error MSB3073), therefore I changed the command to always exit with 0.
del $(IntDir)datefile.obj & exit 0
Create this build event in the project configuration, under Configuration Properties / Build Events.
Related
I have several protobuf messages in a folder which I'd like to automatically convert into the respective header/cc files and then continue the compilation process inside of Visual Studio.
The best solution that I could comeup sofar was to define a Pre-Build Event through Propertise>Build Events>Pre-Build Event and specifying the following as the command:
$(SolutionDir)Dependencies\include\protobuf\bin\protoc.exe --proto_path=$(SolutionDir)Dependencies\include\messages\ --cpp_out=$(SolutionDir)Dependencies\include\messages\ message.proto message2.proto message3.proto
There are currently 2 issues concerning this solution :
I have to manually add each filename myself. How is it possible to make the filenames get picked automatically by VS2019? I tried %filename% macro, to no avail since it seems it returns the project file names only.
I also found out, these files are not generated each time I change the messages. even cleaning the projects, doesn't delete them, so I have to manually delete the generated files and try rebuilding the project again!
Other than resorting to a batchfile that can get called as a prebuild event, how can I achieve this inside Visual Studio without doing that?
I suggest you could refer to the following steps:
1,Modify the properties of the .proto file:Item Type:Custom Build Tool
2,Configure project properties: Properties -> Custom Build Tools -> General
command line:$(SolutionDir)Dependencies\include\protobuf\bin\protoc.exe --proto_path= .\proto %(Filename).proto --cpp_out=$(ProjectDir)protocpp
Description: protoc %(Filename).proto
Outputs: $(ProjectDir)protocpp%(Filename).pb.cc
Add Outputs to Item Type: c/c++ complier
And then you could try to build the .proto file.
Note: The newly added the .proto file also needs to select the operation of the Custom Build Tool
I want a run a build step that looks at a .h file, adds some code based on some external params, and hands the resulting file to the preprocessor.
I see the "Custom Build Step" in the project properties. It seems to need an output file. I just want to forward the results to the preprocessor.
It seems like the custom build step wants to do a 1-time process, not per-file or by file type.
The problem is that I don't know how to send my external executable the file currently being processed (eg, "HelloWorld.cpp"). $(InputName) and %(Filename) are blank and docs say it's deprecated. How do I send the filename to my external executable?
But even if I get that working, I don't want to set this per-file. I want all header files to go through this process.
Any ideas?
I've looked at:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd293663.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hefydhhy(v=vs.90).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff770593(v=vs.140).aspx
working on a debug, x64 config on windows.
First of all, No, you cannot modify a file and pass along the results to the next stage (that I could see). I'd need some sort of Program Transformation System.
So I need an intermediate file. That file has to be added to the project, even if it gets overwritten by your code generator. I can associate c++ header files with a custom build tool, and they will all get called one-by-one in the stage of the build specified in the Custom Build Step. The custom build tool will modify the intermediate file(s), and all is well.
The VS 2015 name for the current file being processed is %(Filename). In older versions it has been $(ProjectName) and $(InputName).
In one cpp-file I use the __DATE__ macro to get the compile-date.
It gives me the date of the last compile of that file. But as the file is not changed very often, the date is old in most cases, sometimes several months.
What I actually want is the date of the last build of the project.
Is there an setting to force VS2010 to rebuild that single cpp-file on every compile of the project?
Regardless of changes in the file?
The only way I found until now is to modify the file or delete the created obj-file by an script before the build, I would prefer an solution inside VS if that is possible.
You could probably add a Pre-Build Step that touch (see this thread) the file?
To add a Pre-Build Step, open your Project Properties, then Configuration Properties > Build Events > Pre-Build Event then add the command line you want to have executed in Command Line.
Following the suggestion from Amitd, apparently you can also touch the file using PowerShell, see this for explanations.
As suggested by Adrian McCarthy in the comments below, deleting the .obj file would be preferable in the context where source control is used and you want to keep the .cpp read-only. Using the "macros" exposed by Visual Studio, deleting them can be made easy:
del $(TargetDir)sourcefile.obj
Quoted from Cheers and hth. - Alf as another way to achieve this
nmake (bundled with Visual Studio and the SDK) option /t does a touch, it was once the conventional way to do this for Windows programmers.
You can add the following pre-build step, were you simply touch the date stamp of the file. The +,, is a special flag to the copy command, telling it to update the timestamp of the file:
copy file.cpp +,,
As suggested by Adrian McCarthy, you can simply delete the object file every time you build the project.
Therefore, create a pre-build event invoking the del command. According to Microsoft, you can use the $(IntDir) macro to refer to the directory wher the object file is stored (you should not use the $(TargetDir) macro).
I had issues with the return code of the command (error MSB3073), therefore I changed the command to always exit with 0.
del $(IntDir)datefile.obj & exit 0
Create this build event in the project configuration, under Configuration Properties / Build Events.
Is there a way to force Visual studio to rebuild a specific file on every build?
I have a version header with __DATE__ and __TIME__ and I want it automatically updated for each release.
I can do a prebuild event and a batch file to touch the file, just wondered if there was a feature to do this yet?
You can also delete the .obj file with a pre-build step. It will cause the compiler to rebuild your .cpp or .h file. Right click your project > Properties > Build events > Pre-Build Event > Command Line and add the following line:
del $(TargetDir)source.obj
From superuser, try adding a prebuild command:
copy /b filename.ext +,,
Where filename.ext is the path/name of the header you want touched. Caveat: I'm not certain VStudio always executes prebuild events, or only if it detects it actually needs to do a build.
There is a touch ms build task. Add it to the build depends on target. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/37fwbyt5.aspx
I recently had this question using with the exact same underlying reason of wanting to always update __DATE__ and __TIME__ macros on build. No single answer here worked for me, but they were a great help.
As #Martin-Beckett mentioned in a comment, even pre build events won't run if nothing is perceived as having changed. The key is adding a post event to modify the file of interest. Then every time you hit Build it will be guaranteed to recompile that file as it will have changed after the last compilation.
Both the del $(IntDir)file.obj and copy /b file.h +,, methods worked for me. I'm partial to the copy, so for a step-by-step process:
Right-click project -> Properties -> Build Events -> Post-Build Event > Command Line and add the following line:
copy /b file.h +,,
I would recommend adding a Description for this as it comes up in the Build Output window. Now I can hit Build ten times in a row and that file is recompiled every time.
There has been confusion a few times with my testers somehow getting old builds of my project to test, and then reporting on fixed bugs.
How can I embed a build ID into my project? Current time of build, or simply starting at 1 and incrementing every time the program is built would work. Then in the game UI, the build number will be printed so there is no ambiguity as to which version of the software the tester is using.
I've googled around for an answer and asked on IRC, but everything I've found seems to pertain only to C#.
Any ideas? On Unix, I would just modify the Makefile, and have some oneliner insert the value I need into the source.
Right now my best idea is to figure out how the VS build process works, then write a python script to run first and edit the source to update the build number.
Ok, here is my quick and dirty and ugly solution.
I have a buildid.txt file, this is a text file with only an integer value for buildid.
I have increment-buildid.bat
#echo off
for /f %%a in (buildid.txt) do (
echo %%a
set /a num=%%a
)
echo %num%
set /a num += 1
echo %num% > buildid.txt
echo int buildid = %num%; > buildid.c
To muck about with the Visual Studio build process, right click solution in solution explorer, -> properties -> Build Events -> Pre-Build Events.
Now that I know how do do this, I can put in my zip + scp script in post build events for instant upload! (not sure of that's blocking or not, will have to test it)
edit: the upload is indeed blocking. that is, debugging does not start until the upload has finished. I just have another batch to upload using scp as I feel the need to. Double click it, and it is sent to remote server.
To solve the same problem, I wrote a small utility that generates a header file containing a date/time stamp in a #define. It runs as a pre-build step and the main project includes the generated header. Then you can include the stamp in a sign-on banner or the like.
In my projects I also generate a version resource, then move it into an .rc2 file (manually written resources) and modify it to include the generated header and update the version appropriately.