This is a configuration option for the VsTsc task, the one that runs the compiler. It is used in the PreComputeCompileTypeScript
target. The intention is to make the VsTsc task go through all the motions, except to run the compiler. That didn't pan out on your machine, it actually did run the compiler. Which then threw a fit since it can't find a file named COMPUTE_PATHS_ONLY.
The VsTsc task is stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\TypeScript\TypeScript.Tasks.dll. Looking at the assembly with a decompiler:
protected override int ExecuteTool(string pathToTool, string responseFileCommands, string commandLineCommands)
{
if (this.Configurations.Contains("--sourcemap"))
{
this.generateSourceMaps = true;
}
else
{
this.generateSourceMaps = false;
}
if (this.Configurations.Contains("--declaration"))
{
this.generateDeclarations = true;
}
else
{
this.generateDeclarations = false;
}
this.GenerateOutputPaths();
if (!responseFileCommands.Contains("COMPUTE_PATHS_ONLY"))
{
return base.ExecuteTool(pathToTool, responseFileCommands, commandLineCommands);
}
return 0;
}
Note the !responseFileCommands.Contains()
test to bypass the base.ExecuteTool() call.
All I can guess is that the method doesn't look like this on your machine. With the most likely cause that you have an outdated version of TypeScript.Tasks.dll. On my machine with VS2013 Update 4 installed it is dated Nov 11, 2014 with a size of 27816 bytes.