how-to-build-specific-targets-in-solutions-by-using-msbuild-exe.md

title	ms.date	ms.topic	helpviewer_keywords	ms.assetid	author	ms.author	manager	ms.workload
Use MSBuild.exe to build specific targets in solutions	11/04/2016	conceptual	MSBuild, building specific targets in a solution msbuild.exe, building specific targets in a solution MSBuild, msbuild.exe	f46feb9b-4c16-4fec-b6e1-36a959692ba3	ghogen	ghogen	jillfra	multiple

How to: Build specific targets in solutions by using MSBuild.exe

You can use MSBuild.exe to build specific targets of specific projects in a solution.

To build a specific target of a specific project in a solution

1. At the command line, type MSBuild.exe <SolutionName>.sln, where <SolutionName> corresponds to the file name of the solution that contains the target that you want to execute.

2. Specify the target after the -target: switch in the format <ProjectName>:<TargetName>. If the project name contains any of the characters %, $, @, ;, ., (, ), or ', replace them with an _ in the specified target name.

Example

The following example executes the Rebuild target of the NotInSlnFolder project, and then executes the Clean target of the InSolutionFolder project, which is located in the NewFolder solution folder.

msbuild SlnFolders.sln -target:NotInSlnfolder:Rebuild;NewFolder\InSolutionFolder:Clean

Troubleshooting

If you would like to examine the options available to you, you can use a debugging option provided by MSBuild to do so. Set the environment variable MSBUILDEMITSOLUTION=1 and build your solution. This will produce an MSBuild file named <SolutionName>.sln.metaproj that shows MSBuild's internal view of the solution at build time. You can inspect this view to determine what targets are available to build.

Do not build with this environment variable set unless you need this internal view. This setting can cause problems building projects in your solution.

See also

• Command-line reference
• MSBuild reference
• MSBuild
• MSBuild concepts