How can you launch a debug session from a msbuild task?

Question

The system i'm building has 4 separate applications that in production, are 4 distinct win32 services. During development I run them as 4 separate console applications. These programs need to be started in a specific order.

I do this from VS2010 by right clicking on each project and select debug > start a new instance. This works but is painfully slow.

I attempted to use run "Multiple startup projects", but they all start at the same time. Changing the start order does not help.

So, what i want to do is to use MSBuild to start each program from a build script. I attempted to use the Exec Task but the programs are not launched as debugged processes..

Since all of VS is based on msbuild, i know there must be a way to launch a project this way..

Arun M · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-06 04:59:48Z

0

You can use a mix of Pre/Post build events for this. You can modify them in Project Properties -> Build Events for the last project.

Prebuild event

// Build is going to replace these files, they must not be in use  
taskkill /IM Foo.exe  
taskkill /IM Bar.exe

Postbuild event

// VsJITDebugger will ask for which debugger to attach, you can 
// choose currently active VS instance
VsJITDebugger.exe $(SolutionDir)\Foo\bin\Debug\Foo.exe  
VsJITDebugger.exe $(SolutionDir)\Bar\bin\Debug\Bar.exe

Launching debugger on each build may get bit annoying :) Better would be to use a batch script for the last project. You can do it in Project Properties -> Debug -> Start external program.

answered Oct 6, 2012 at 4:59

Arun M

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3 Comments

mbalsam Over a year ago

Arun, The VsJitDebugger ran the program as a Windows application and not a Console application. A Brown/Grey window appears and then the app crashes. This is the same behavioral i get if i just try to double click the application from explorer. I tried the same thing from msbuild command and got the same results. I dont see a way to launch VSjitDebugger to exec a console app. However, my desired approach is to do this from a build script that i run from the Tools > External tools menu.

Arun M Over a year ago

It works for me though, I created a External Tool command img. VSJitDebugger shows up a dialog to choose the instance of VS debugger to attach the console app: img

mbalsam Over a year ago

Arun, thanks for the feedback. I gave up and put in a hardcoded sleep value into each service. Its only compiled at DEBUG time..

mbalsam · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-10 22:05:37Z

0

I did not find a solution.. I put a different hard-coded delay into each app and launched it with Debug "multiple start-up projects".. A bit of a hack but simple is better.

answered Oct 10, 2012 at 22:05

mbalsam

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