MSBuild Changelog

MSBuild 17.0.0

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.0 and .NET SDK 6.0.100.

What's new

• MSBuild now reports its version as 17 and uses Visual Studio 2022 versions of tasks where appropriate.
• MSBuild now targets .NET Framework 4.7.2 and .NET 6.0.
• 64-bit MSBuild is now used for builds from Visual Studio.
• Binary logs are smaller and have more information.
• MSBuildCopyContentTransitively is now on by default, ensuring consistency in output folders on incremental builds.
• The method GetType() can no longer be called in property functions.

Detailed release notes

Added

• Intrinsic tasks now log their location (#6397). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• TargetSkippedEventArgs now has TargetSkipReason and OriginalBuildEventContext (#6402, #6577). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• TaskStarted events now log line and column (#6399). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• ETW trace events for PerformDependencyAnalysis (#6658), WriteLinesToFile (#6670), CopyUpToDate (#6661).
• If the environment variable MSBuildDebugEngine is set, MSBuild will create binary logs for all operations to MSBUILDDEBUGPATH regardless of how it is called (#6639, #6792).
• ProjectReferences can now negotiate Platform (#6655, #6724, #6889).
• Tasks can now call TaskLoggingHelper.LogsMessagesOfImportance to determine if any attached logger would preserve a log message before constructing it (to save time in the not-being-logged case) (#6381, #6737).
• Support referencing assemblies with generic attributes (#6735). Thanks, @davidwrighton!
• XSD-based MSBuild IntelliSense now supports ImplicitUsings and Using items (#6755), InternalsVisibleTo (#6778), Windows Forms properties (#6860), DebugType (#6849), and SatelliteResourceLanguages (#6861). Thanks, @pranavkm, @DamianEdwards, @RussKie, and @drewnoakes!
• Tasks can now call TaskLoggingHelper.IsTaskInputLoggingEnabled and avoid redundant logging of inputs (#6803).
• Support extracting resource namespace from C# source that uses file-scoped namespaces (#6881).

Changed

• The on-disk format of serialized caches has changed (#6350, #6324, #6490, #6674).
• MSBuild is now signed with a new certificate (#6448).
• BuildParameters.DisableInprocNode now applies to more processes (#6400).
• VCTargetsPath now defaults to v170 (#6550).
• MSBuild no longer logs Building with tools version "Current" (#6627). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Text loggers now log properties and items at the end of evaluation (#6535).
• MSBuildCopyContentTransitively is now on by default, ensuring consistency in output folders on incremental builds (#6622, #6703).
• MSBuild on .NET 6 has improved task-assembly-reference fallback behavior (#6558).
• MSBuild features gated on the 16.8 changewave are now nonconfigurable (#6634).
• The deprecated import of $(CoreCrossTargetingTargetsPath) was removed (#6668). Thanks, @Nirmal4G!
• Improved error message for MSB4213 (#6640).
• The method GetType() can no longer be called in property functions (#6769).
• MSBuild is now fully NGENed by Visual Studio setup (#6764).
• MSBuild (and Visual Studio) now reference System.Text.Json 5.0.2 (#6784). Thanks, @JakeRadMSFT!
• Default to SHA2 digest for ClickOnce manifest when certificate signing algorithm is sha256/384/512 (#6882).

Fixed

• Solution builds should work when using the secret environment variable MSBUILDNOINPROCNODE (#6385).
• Solution extensions can now use BeforeTargets="ValidateSolutionConfiguration" (#6454).
• Performance improvements (#6529, #6556, #6598, #6632, #6669, #6671, #6666, #6678, #6680, #6705, #6595, #6716, #6786, #6816, #6832, #6845).
• Single-file ClickOnce publish includes file association icons (#6578).
• Improved robustness in error handling of libraries without resources (#6546).
• Fixed missing information in Project's DebuggerDisplay (#6650).
• ResolveAssemblyReferences output paths are now output in normalized form (#6533).
• Improved handling of satellite assemblies in ClickOnce (#6665).
• Roslyn code analyzers are no longer run during XAML precompilation (#6676). Thanks, @jlaanstra!
• 64-bit API callers no longer need to set MSBUILD_EXE_PATH (#6683, #6746).
• EvaluateStop ETW events are now automatically correlated with EvaluateStart (#6725).
• Evaluation time is included in text performance traces (#6725).
• Add PackageDescription to Microsoft.NET.StringTools (#6740).
• Fixed deadlock between ExecuteSubmission and LoggingService (#6717).
• Narrowed conditions where MSBuild would blame NuGet for SDK resolution problems (#6742).
• CombineTargetFrameworkInfoProperties no longer fails on portable framework names (#6699).
• Avoid needless builds of GenerateBindingRedirects (#6726).
• The solution configuration is now passed to experimental cache plugins (#6738).
• Clearer errors when SDK resolvers throw exceptions (#6763).
• Improved errors from InternableString.ExpensiveConvertToString (#6798).
• Binding redirects for all System.* assemblies updated (#6830).
• Fixed deadlock between BuildManager and LoggingService (#6837).
• Log message arguments for warnings and errors (#6804). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Use static CoreClrAssemblyLoader for SDK resolvers (#6864). Thanks, @marcin-krystianc!
• Avoid break caused by fix and workaround for AL path colliding (#6884).
• Support private-use area Unicode characters in paths passed to XslTransformation (#6863, #6946). Thanks, @lanfeust69!
• Use the correct .NET host when called from a .NET 6.0 application (#6890).

Infrastructure

• This repo now builds with Arcade 6.0 (#6143).
• Use newer Ubuntu versions for Linux CI builds (#6488).
• MSBuild now uses Arcade-powered source build (#6387).
• Improved repo issue templates and automation (#6557).
• Whitespace cleanup (#6565).
• This repo no longer needs to double-specify the SDK version (#6596).
• Simplify references to TargetFramework using new intrinsics (#5799).
• Reference the Microsoft.DotNet.XUnitExtensions package from Arcade instead of our fork (#6638).
• Use BannedApiAnalyzers (#6675).
• Enable analyzers for the MSBuild repo with rules similar to dotnet/runtime (#5656). Thanks, @elachlan!
• Improved internal OptProf training scenarios (#6758).
• Delete Unreachable code (#6805). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Upgrade System.Net.Http package version used in tests (#6879).

Documentation

• Use GitHub-generated Markdown tables of contents (#6760).
• Fixed validation issues in docs build (#6744).
• Descriptions of labels in use in this repo (#6873).

MSBuild 16.11.0

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.0 and .NET SDK 5.0.400.

What's new

• MSBuild now supports long paths in the 64-bit amd64\MSBuild.exe executable.
• New version properties MSBuildFileVersion (4-part, matches file version) and MSBuildSemanticVersion (matches package versions) are now available for use (#6534).

Detailed release notes

Added

• Additional properties documented and available for completion in Visual Studio (#6500, #6530).
• The SignFile task is now available in MSBuild on .NET 5.0 (#6509). Thanks, @Zastai!
• New version properties MSBuildFileVersion (4-part, matches file version) and MSBuildSemanticVersion (matches package versions) are now available for use (#6534).

Changed

• When using the experimental cache API, schedule proxy builds to the in-proc node for performance (#6386).
• Experimental cache queries are now executed in parallel (#6468).
• The ETW events generated in ResolveAssemblyReference now include an approximation of the "size" of the RAR request (#6410).

Fixed

• Fixed memory leak in ProjectRootElement.Reload (#6457).
• Added locking to avoid race conditions in BuildManager (#6412).
• Allow ResolveAssemblyReferences precomputed cache files to be in read-only locations (#6393).
• 64-bit al.exe is used when targeting 64-bit architectures (for real this time) (#6484).
• Builds with ProduceOnlyReferenceAssembly no longer expect debug symbols to be produced (#6511). Thanks, @Zastai!
• 64-bit MSBuild.exe supports long paths (and other .NET default behaviors) (#6562).
• Non-graph builds no longer crash in the experimental project cache (#6568).
• The experimental project cache is initialized only once (#6569).
• The experimental project cache no longer tries to schedule proxy builds to the in-proc node (#6635).

Infrastructure

• Use a packaged C# compiler to avoid changes in reference assembly generation caused by compiler changes (#6431).
• Use more resilient test-result upload patterns (#6489).
• Conditional compilation for .NET Core within our repo now includes new .NET 5.0+ runtimes (#6538).
• Switched to OneLocBuild for localization PRs (#6561).
• Moved to latest Ubuntu image for PR test legs (#6573).

MSBuild 16.10.2

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.2 and will ship with .NET SDK 5.0.302.

Fixed

• Fixed a regression in the MakeRelative property function that dropped trailing slashes (#6513). Thanks, @dsparkplug and @pmisik!
• Fixed a regression in glob matching where files without extensions were erroneously not matched (#6531).
• Fixed a change in logging that caused crashes in Azure DevOps loggers (#6520).

MSBuild 16.10.2

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.2 and will ship with .NET SDK 5.0.302.

Fixed

• Fixed a regression in the MakeRelative property function that dropped trailing slashes (#6513). Thanks, @dsparkplug and @pmisik!
• Fixed a regression in glob matching where files without extensions were erroneously not matched (#6531).
• Fixed a change in logging that caused crashes in Azure DevOps loggers (#6520).

MSBuild 16.10.1

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.1 and .NET SDK 5.0.301.

Fixed

• Restore support for building individual project(s) within solutions by specifying -t:Project (#6465).

MSBuild 16.9.2

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.7.

Fixed

• Fixed MSB0001 error when building large solutions (#6437).

MSBuild 16.10.0

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.0 and .NET SDK 5.0.300.

What's new

• MSBuild now targets .NET 5.0 and .NET Framework 4.7.2.
• MSBuild is faster and uses less memory.
• Binary logs are smaller and have less performance overhead.
• Tasks can now opt into resource management to improve parallelism in large builds.
• It's now possible to optionally embed arbitrary files in a binary log.

Detailed release notes

Added

• Projects can now specify AdditionalTargetFrameworkInfoProperty items to indicate that referencing projects should get those properties exposed as AdditionalPropertiesFromProject metadata on resolved reference items. (#5994).
• The Unzip task now accepts Include and Exclude arguments to filter what is extracted from the zip file (#6018). Thanks, @IvanLieckens!
• The -graph:noBuild command line argument can be used to validate that a graph is buildable without actually building it (#6016).
• TaskParameterEventArgs allow logging task parameters and values in a compact, structured way (#6155). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• ClickOnce publish now supports Ready To Run (#6244).
• .NET 5.0 applications may now specify a toolset configuration file (#6220).
• ResolveAssemblyReferences can now consume information about assemblies distributed as part of the SDK (#6017).
• Allow constructing a ProjectInstance from a ProjectLink (#6262).
• Introduce cross-process resource management for tasks (#5859).
• ProjectEvaluationFinished now has fields for properties and items (#6287). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• WriteCodeFragment can now write assembly attributes of specified types, and infers some common types (#6285). Thanks, @reduckted!
• The -detailedSummary option now accepts a boolean argument, preventing dumping details to the console logger when building with -bl -ds:false (#6338). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Binary logs now include files listed in the item EmbedInBinlog as well as MSBuild projects (#6339). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• The FindInvalidProjectReferences task is now available in .NET Core/5.0+ scenarios (#6365).

Changed

• String deduplication is now much more sophisticated, reducing memory usage (#5663).
• Refactoring and performance improvements in ResolveAssemblyReferences (#5929, #6094).
• Binary logs now store strings only once, dramatically reducing log size (#6017, #6326). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Refactoring and code cleanup (#6120, #6159, #6158, #6282). Thanks, @Nirmal4G!
• Span<T>-based methods are used on .NET Framework MSBuild as well as .NET 5.0 (#6130).
• Improved MSB4064 error to include information about the loaded task that didn't have the argument (#5945). Thanks, @BartoszKlonowski!
• Performance improvements in inter-node communication (#6023). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Performance improvements in matching items based on metadata (#6035), property expansion (#6128), glob evaluation (#6151), enumerating files (#6227).
• When evaluated with IgnoreInvalidImports, empty imports are also allowed (#6222).
• Log.HasLoggedError now respects MSBuildWarningsAsErrors (#6174).
• TargetPath metadata is now respected on items that copy to output directories, and takes precedence over Link (#6237).
• The Restore operation now fails when SDKs are unresolvable (#6312).
• MSBuild.exe.config now has explicit binding redirects for all assemblies in the MSBuild VSIX (#6334).

Fixed

• Inconsistencies between XamlPreCompile and the CoreCompile C## compiler invocation (#6093). Thanks, @huoyaoyuan!
• Wait for child nodes to exit before exiting the entry-point node in VSTest scenarios (#6053). Thanks, @tmds!
• Fix bad plugin EndBuild exception handling during graph builds (#6110).
• Allow specifying UseUtf8Encoding in ToolTasks (#6188).
• Failures on big-endian systems (#6204). Thanks, @uweigand!
• 64-bit al.exe is used when targeting 64-bit architectures (#6207).
• Improved error messages when encountering a BadImageReferenceException in ResolveAssemblyReferences (#6240, #6270). Thanks, @FiniteReality!
• Escape special characters in Exec’s generated batch files, allowing builds as users with some special characters in their Windows username (#6233).
• Permit comments and trailing commas in solution filter files (#6346).
• Exceptions thrown from experimental cache plugins are now handled and logged better (#6345, #6368).
• Source generators with configuration files can now be used in XamlPreCompile (#6438).
• Large builds no longer crash with an exception in LogProjectStarted (#6437).

Infrastructure

• Update to Arcade 5.0 and .NET 5.0 (#5836).
• The primary development branch is now named main.
• Test robustness improvements (#6055, #6336, #6337, #6332). Thanks, @tmds and @KirillOsenkov!
• Remove unnecessary NuGet package references (#6036). Thanks, @teo-tsirpanis!
• Correctly mark .NET Framework 3.5 reference assembly package dependency as private (#6214).
• Our own builds opt into text-based performance logging (#6274).
• Update to Arcade publishing v3 (#6349).
• Use OneLocBuild localization process (#6378).

Documentation

• Updates to static graph documentation (#6043).
• Short doc on the threading model (#6042).
• Update help text to indicate that -- is a valid argument prefix (#6205). Thanks, @BartoszKlonowski!
• API documentation improvements (#6246, #6284).
• Details about interactions with the Global Assembly Cache (#6173).

MSBuild 16.9.0.2116703

⚠ This release should have been versioned 16.9.1 but was erroneously released as 16.9.0.

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.3.

Fixed

• Restore support for building solutions with web site projects (#6238).

MSBuild 16.9.0

This version of MSBuild shipped with Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.0 and .NET SDK 5.0.200.

What's new

• MSB3277 warnings now include information about the assembly identities involved, instead of saying to rerun under higher verbosity.
• It's now possible to opt out of culture-name detection of EmbeddedResources, for instance to have a resource named a.cs.template.
• Common targets now support $(BaseOutputPath), with the default value bin.
• Item Updates are no longer case-sensitive, fixing a regression in MSBuild 16.6 (#5888).
• ParentBuildEventContext now includes a parent MSBuild task if relevant, enabling proper nesting in GUI viewers.
• Builds that fail because a warning was elevated to an error now report overall failure in the MSBuild.exe exit code.

Detailed release notes

Added

• The MSB4006 error has been enhanced to describe the cycle when possible (#5711). Thanks, @haiyuzhu!.
• More information is logged under MSBUILDDEBUGCOMM (#5759).
• The command line parser now accepts arguments with double hyphens (--argument) as well as single hyphens (-argument) and forward slashes (/argument) (#5786). Thanks, @BartoszKlonowski!
• MSBuild now participates in the .NET CLI text performance log system on an opt-in basis (#5861).
• Common targets now support $(BaseOutputPath), with the default value bin (#5238). Thanks, @Nirmal4G!
• Microsoft.Build.Exceptions.CircularDependencyException is now public (#5988). Thanks, @tflynt91!
• EvaluationId is now preserved in the ProjectStarted event, allowing disambiguating related project start events (#5997). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• The ResolveAssemblyReference task can now optionally emit items describing unresolved assembly conflicts (#5990).
• Experimental ProjectCache API to enable higher-order build systems (#5936).

Changed

• Warnings suppressed via $(NoWarn) (which formerly applied only to targets that opted in like the C## compiler) are now treated as $(MSBuildWarningsAsMessages) (#5671).
• Warnings elevated via $(WarningsAsErrors ) (which formerly applied only to targets that opted in like the C## compiler) are now treated as $(MSBuildWarningsAsErrors) (#5774).
• Improved error message when using an old .NET (Core) SDK and targeting .NET 5.0 (#5826).
• Trailing spaces in property expressions inside conditionals now emit an error instead of silently expanding to the empty string (#5672, #5868). Thanks, @mfkl!
• MSB3277 warnings now include information about the assembly identities involved, instead of saying to rerun under higher verbosity (#5798).
• MSB5009 errors now indicate the project in the solution that is causing the nesting error (#5835). Thanks, @BartoszKlonowski!
• Avoid spawning a process to determine processor architecture (#5897). Thanks, @tmds!
• It's now possible to opt out of culture-name detection of EmbeddedResources, for instance to have a resource named a.cs.template (#5824).
• ProjectInSolution.AbsolutePath returns a normalized full path when possible (#5949).
• Evaluation pass-stop events now include information about the "size" (number of properties/items/imports) of the project (#5978). Thanks, @arkalyanms!

Fixed

• AllowFailureWithoutError now does what it said it would do (#5743).
• The solution parser now no longer skips projects that are missing an EndProject line (#5808). Thanks, @BartoszKlonowski!
• ProjectReferences to .vcxproj projects from multi-targeted .NET projects no longer overbuild (#5838).
• Removed unused InternalsVisibleTo to obsolete test assemblies (#5914). Thanks, @SingleAccretion!
• Respect conditions when removing all items from an existing list at evaluation time (#5927).
• Common targets should no longer break if the environment variable OS is set (#5916).
• Some internal errors will now be reported as errors instead of hanging the build (#5917).
• Item Updates are no longer case-sensitive, fixing a regression in MSBuild 16.6 (#5888).
• Use lazy string formatting in more places (#5924).
• Redundant references to MSBuild assemblies no longer fail in 64 MSBuild inline tasks (#5975).
• The Exec task will now no longer emit the expanded Command to the log on failure (#5962). Thanks, @tmds!
• Tasks generated with RoslynCodeTaskFactory now no longer rebuild for every use, even with identical inputs (#5988). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• ParentBuildEventContext now includes a parent MSBuild task if relevant (#5966). Thanks, @KirillOsenkov!
• Builds that fail because a warning was elevated to an error now report overall failure in the MSBuild.exe exit code (#6006).
• Performance of projects with large numbers of consecutive item updates without wildcards improved (#5853).
• Performance improvements in ResolveAssemblyReferences (#5973).
• PackageReferences that are marked as development dependencies are removed from the ClickOnce manifest (#6037).
• Stop overfiltering .NET Core assemblies from the ClickOnce manifest (#6080).

Infrastructure

• The MSBuild codebase now warns for unused using statements (#5761).
• The MSBuild codebase is now indexed for Rich Code Navigation on CI build (#5790). Thanks, @jepetty!
• The 64-bit bootstrap directory is more usable (#5825).
• Test robustness improvements (#5827, #5944, #5995).
• Make non-shipping NuGet packages compliant (#5823).
• Use Darc to keep bootstrap dependencies up to date (#5909).
• Replace MSBuild.Dev.sln and MSBuild.SourceBuild.sln with solution filters (#6010).
• Minimize and update NuGet feeds (#6019, #6136).

Documentation

• Improvements to MSBuild-internal Change Wave docs (#5770, #5851).
• High-level documentation for static graph functionality added (#5741).
• Instructions on testing private bits (#5818, #5831).
• XML doc comments updated to match public-ready API docs pages (#6028). Thanks, @ghogen!