title

MSBuild Reference

description

Access links to articles that contain reference information for MSBuild, the build system for Visual Studio.

ms.date

11/04/2016

ms.topic

reference

dev_langs

CSharp

C++

helpviewer_keywords

MSBuild, reference

author

ghogen

ms.author

ghogen

ms.subservice

msbuild

MSBuild reference

MSBuild is the build system for Visual Studio. The following links lead to topics that contain MSBuild reference information.

In this section

Project file schema reference
Describes the XML elements that make up the MSBuild file format.
Task reference
Describes some of the typical tasks that are included with MSBuild.
Conditions
Describes the conditions that are available in MSBuild files.
Conditional constructs
Describes how to use the Choose, When, and Otherwise elements.
MSBuild reserved and well-known properties
Describes the MSBuild reserved properties.
Common MSBuild project properties
Describes project properties that are common to all project types, and also properties that are often used by particular project types.
Common MSBuild project items
Describes project items that are common to all project types, and also items that are often used by particular project types.
Command-line reference
Describes the arguments and switches that can be used with MSBuild.exe.
.Targets files
Describes the .Targets file that is included in MSBuild.
Well-known item metadata
Lists the metadata that is created together with every item.
Response files
Explains the .rsp files that contain command-line switches.
Additional resources
Provides links to MSBuild websites and newsgroups.
WPF MSBuild reference
Contains an MSBuild targets and task reference for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
Special characters to escape
Lists the characters that may have to be "escaped" to be interpreted correctly. An escape sequence is a series of characters that signifies that what follows is an alternative interpretation.