ERROR: Cannot find outputs of project output group

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I am trying to automate build on my visual studio project from command prompt. The following is the code which I have tried.

VB

"C:\Progra~1\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv" "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\WcfRestApplication3\RestService\
RestService.vdproj" /Build "Release" /Project RestService

But I got the following error

C#

Microsoft (R) Visual Studio Version 9.0.30729.1.
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
------ Starting pre-build validation for project 'RestService' ------
ERROR: Cannot find outputs of project output group '(unable to determine name)'.
  Either the group, its configuration, or its project may have been removed from
 the solution.
ERROR: Cannot find outputs of project output group '(unable to determine name)'.
  Either the group, its configuration, or its project may have been removed from
 the solution.
------ Pre-build validation for project 'RestService' completed ------
------ Build started: Project: RestService, Configuration: Release ------
========== Build: 0 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

Can someone help me to resolve this?

NB: I have already tried this.[^]

Thanks & Regards
Sebastian

Posted 22-Jun-12 1:08am

Sebastian T Xavier

Updated 24-Jun-12 18:57pm

v3

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Comments

Richard MacCutchan 22-Jun-12 7:58am

The 'commands' above do not make any sense, all you have is some pathnames, but no actual commands. Also, what happens when you try to build this within Visual Studio?

Sebastian T Xavier 25-Jun-12 1:23am

Thanks Richard for your time.
The above command does make some sense. Here is my explanation....
"C:\Progra~1\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv" -> This line invokes the denenv.exe
"C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\WcfRestApplication3\RestService\RestService.vdproj" -> This line specifies the path and name of project to be built.
/Build "Release" /Project RestService -> This line contains the command Build, and specifies it is in Release mode and contains the project name.

In visual studio, I can build this project and create msi file & exe. But I want to automate build procedure, without depending on developer. Any help on this would be appreciated.

Regards
Sebastian

Richard MacCutchan 25-Jun-12 4:06am

Sorry, I must have been asleep when I typed that. See my latest suggestion.

Sebastian T Xavier 25-Jun-12 5:39am

That's cool. Thank you Richard.

Steve Maier 22-Jun-12 11:22am

When I run from the commandline, I typically use the sln name and not the project name as the first parameter. Not sure this would help you tho.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Jun-12 22:14pm

Somewhat irrelevant. OP tries to develop custom project which can do many things beyond the regular template projects, in particular, build solutions. Solution file format is not the file format that allowed that powerful declarative programming MSBuild does. Using project file standard is right thing to do.
--SA

Sebastian T Xavier 25-Jun-12 5:57am

Thanks Steve for your help. The syntax seems correct as I have successfully tested a desktop application's setup project(Actually I want to build a set up project). In current scenario, it is a multi-project solution with two class libraries and a REST Web Service.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Jun-12 22:17pm

Isn't that obvious: as you don't provide sample project file, there is not enough information to help you. Just learn MSBuild and project file programming properly; if you face a problem, ask a question based on the project code sample, otherwise -- how can we help you?
--SA

2 solutions

Solution 1

From looking at the devenv /Build[^] command, it would seem that you have some parameters missing. According to the documentation the solution file is also required.

Posted 24-Jun-12 22:04pm

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

Sebastian T Xavier 25-Jun-12 7:32am

Thanks Richard, for your reply. I have checked this URL earlier and found it is really helpful. Here, the syntax and parameters are seems to be correct as I have successfully tested a desktop application's setup project(Actually I want to build a set up project; that's why the extension is xxx.vdproj). In current scenario, it is a multi-project solution with two class libraries and a REST Web Service.

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Sebastian T Xavier · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-02T00:31:00

Hello,

This problem is solved. I could run the below script by creating a solution with the same name of my web setup project.

XML

"C:\Progra~1\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv" "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\SebNewRESTSetup\SebNewRESTSetup.sln" /Build "Release" /Project SebNewRESTSetup

Thanks for all who support me to solve this.

Sebastian