[Visual Studio 2008 - Custom Build Rule] Use "Outputs" property in "Command Line" property

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Hopefully a quick and easy question,

I am setting up a custom build rule in Visual Studio 2008 (for Qt tool-chain). There is an "Outputs" property, which i assume specifies where the built file should go. But the tool takes the output path as a command line parameter "-o".

The rules that i have (from here), specify the output path both in the "Outputs" property and the "Command Line" property, like so:

Command Line:   %QTDIR%\bin\uic.exe [Inputs] -o "[UicPrefix]$(InputName)[UicExt]"
Outputs:        [UicPrefix]$(InputName)[UicExt]

Is there any way i can avoid the duplication and use the Outputs variable in the Command Line, like so:

Command Line:   %QTDIR%\bin\uic.exe [Inputs] -o "[Outputs]"

Posted 19-Sep-11 18:40pm

XTAL256

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Richard MacCutchan · Answer 1 · 2011-10-05T01:42:00

Solution 2

The outputs are used to determine whether the source needs to be rebuilt (is the output file out of date) so if you do not specify outputs the Custom Build will be skipped. Since you can use the Visual Studio macros for all these values there should be no problem in having them in both places.

Posted 5-Oct-11 1:42am

Richard MacCutchan

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Stefan_Lang 6-Oct-11 8:19am

The outputs are used to determine whether the source needs to be rebuilt
Exactly.
if you do not specify outputs the Custom Build will be skipped
Ummm, actually I always thought if you enter nothing it will always be executed - after all, how else would you perform custom steps that don't produce new files (e. g. cleaning up temporary files)?

Richard MacCutchan 6-Oct-11 11:46am

You may be right, it's a long time since I had a custom rule with no outputs.

Stefan_Lang 7-Oct-11 3:50am

or maybe you were right after all - I've recalled a case that implies a solution to the seemingly (but not truly) impossible question I posed. See my response to XTAL256.

Richard MacCutchan 7-Oct-11 4:29am

I'm intrigued; I will find a moment to test it sometime soon.

XTAL256 6-Oct-11 22:58pm

I have actually heard of this behaviour, and i think Richard is right that the custom build rule will be skipped. I am not sure if it's correct, i just read it somewhere. It does sound strange, though.

Stefan_Lang 7-Oct-11 3:48am

Actually I recall a solution to the question I posed above: in one project we did have the weird case of the custom build step always being executed even if nothing changed. I investigated and found that the path used under Outputs was invalid, therefore the file named there didn't exist. So, if you do not have any output file, you can force the execution of the custom build step by entering some imaginary filename.

Richard MacCutchan 7-Oct-11 5:13am

See below

Richard MacCutchan 7-Oct-11 5:12am

I just deleted the outputs from my custom step and received the following message in my build: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(151,5): warning MSB8018: No outputs specified for item "TestClass.java". Its custom build command will be skipped.

KarstenK · Answer 2 · 2011-10-05T01:07:00

Solution 1

you can run command lines after the build process in which you can use the VS variables. You find in some "build event" settings.

Posted 5-Oct-11 1:07am

KarstenK