Inside Out

Notes on seeking wisdom and crafting software

Debugging properties in msbuild

One liner, we could just use

[Message](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6yy0yx8d.aspx) task.

**Where to dump the variables/properties?**

The Project

task defines an interesting entrypoint called InitialTargets, it is

run before actually building the project (defined in DefaultTargets

attribute). Modify the csproj file to something like:

``` {.line_numbers} 12 3 4 5 6 7 ```

<Project ToolsVersion=“4.0” InitialTargets=“Log” DefaultTargets=“Build” xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003”>;

  <!— other properties go here… —>

  <Target Name=“Log”>

    <Message Text=“SearchPath = $(AssemblySearchPaths)”/>

  </Target>

</Project>

That will dump *AssemblySearchPaths* before your actual project is built.