How do I run msbuild on a dirs.proj?

Question

_{Tuesday, April 17, 2018 1:46 AM}

In a command line I navigate to the folder and type msbuild dirs.proj and the error I get is:The OutputPath property is not set for project 'dirs.proj'.  Please check to make sure that you
have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project.  Configuration='
'  Platform='X64'.  You may be seeing this message because you are trying to build a project without
a solution file, and have specified a non-default Configuration or Platform that doesn't exist for
this project. This is how my dirs.proj looks. I have tried with X64 it did not matter. Please suggest modification to the dirs.projwhich will make it work. <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <Optimize>false</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="abcd\wxyz.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="abc\wxy.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="ab\wx.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="a\w.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.Common.targets" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <BuildDependsOn>ResolveReferences</BuildDependsOn>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="VerifyAlteredTargetsUsed" />
</Project>

All replies (2)

_{Tuesday, April 17, 2018 7:11 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi ananda vardhana, 

What is your build command line? Have you ever add the argument in your build command line, like 

MSBuild "dirs.proj" /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64

If yes, you will get that error. That because you have no define Platform=x64 for this project in your dirs.proj files. In your project file, there is only Debug|AnyCPU was defined, so you can only build it with argument:

MSBuild "dirs.proj" /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=AnyCPU

Or you can just ignore the platform argument in the command line:

MSBuild "dirs.proj"

Hope this helps.

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_{Tuesday, April 17, 2018 6:17 PM}

Thanks Leo, the following command worked!! 

best regards

ananda

MSBuild "dirs.proj" /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=AnyCPUO