MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified

Question

Why am I getting the following Build error?

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\msbuild.exe C:\Code\EduBenesysNET\EduBenesysNET\EduBenesysNET.vbproj /t:publish /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=AnyCPU /v:detailed /p:PublishDir="\\BSIIS3\c$\DATA\WEBSITES\benesys.net\benesys.net\TotalEducationTest\"  /p:InstallUrl="https://www.benesys.net/benesys.net/TotalEducationTest/"  /p:ApplicationVersion=1.0.1.198  /p:ProductName="Total Education TEST"   /p:PublisherName="BeneSys, Inc."  /p:UpdateRequired="True"  /p:MinimumRequiredVersion=1.0.1.198
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 3.5.30729.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.3603]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.

MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.
Switch: Education

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"

I do not see how a second project is being specified.
Is it stored in a project file somewhere?

The very same command works in powershell but not in cmd.exe... looks like you are hitting a spacial character sequance somewhere... — Cédric Rup, Jan 29 '11 at 08:25

score 152 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '12 at 05:32

It turns out the trailing slash in the PublishDir property is escaping the end quote. Escaping the trailing slash solved my problem.

/p:PublishDir="\\BSIIS3\c$\DATA\WEBSITES\benesys.net\benesys.net\TotalEducationTest\\"

This way we can use quotes for paths that have whitespace in properties that MSBuild requires the trailing slash.

I know this is an old post, but I feel like I needed to share this with someone :-)

score 55 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '18 at 10:29

55

On Git Bash I had to specify the parameters with double slashes like:

MSBuild.exe "Path\to\Solution.sln" //p:Platform="x86" //p:Configuration=Release //p:AppxBundlePlatforms="x86"

answered Jul 04 '18 at 10:29

friday

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Look like this is the root cause, related on how Git_Bash works on POSIX path starting with a slash putting in the mix the windows style paths Double slashes solve or you can disable automatic path conversion to keep interoperability history: http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Posix_path_conversion Release notes https://github.com/git-for-windows/build-extra/blob/a9090580ee37686a53166796dffda531041e16f8/ReleaseNotes.md – Wolfium Oct 25 '20 at 15:47
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Alternatively, you can use `-p` instead of `/p`. – parched Feb 28 '22 at 02:51
`-p` works for me also – Mehdi Hadeli Feb 01 '23 at 14:16

score 49 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 08 '17 at 13:39

49

SOLUTION
Remove the Quotes around the /p:PublishDir setting

i.e.
Instead of quotes

/p:PublishDir="\\BSIIS3\c$\DATA\WEBSITES\benesys.net\benesys.net\TotalEducationTest\"

Use no quotes

/p:PublishDir=\\BSIIS3\c$\DATA\WEBSITES\benesys.net\benesys.net\TotalEducationTest\

I am sorry I did not post my finding sooner. I actually had to research again to see what needed to be changed. Who would have thought removing quotes would have worked? I discovered this when viewing a coworkers build for another solution and noticed it did not have quotes.

edited Dec 08 '17 at 13:39

Liam

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answered Feb 03 '11 at 15:02

Gerhard Weiss

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This is very strange. In my case I got the same error but the problem is that I had an unquoted path with a space in it. Adding the quotes fixed the problem. – Mark Arnott Aug 05 '11 at 13:21
I had the same issue as @MarkArnott, it did not work with spaces or escaped spaces, but quoting did. – Zitrax Feb 05 '13 at 09:39
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Probably the last backslash in your path was escaping the closing double-quote. If correct, then you didn't need to remove the double-quotes, but instead you needed to escape your backslashes. – Carl G Jan 13 '14 at 16:10
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Remember, the spaces in dir path needs to be escaped or have to be placed inside a double quotes – OK999 Aug 09 '16 at 19:10

score 33 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 23 '10 at 16:01

33

This problem appears when you have a path or a property containing a space and that is not quoted.

All your properties and path have quote around them, it's strange. The error message indicates Education as a switch, try to remove /p:ProductName="Total Education TEST" to see if it works.

answered Sep 23 '10 at 16:01

Julien Hoarau

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Avoid Space in folder path to get rid of this issue. – Gopinath Sep 22 '12 at 19:31
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@Julien Hoarau: I tried `MSBuild.exe C:\BuildAgent\work\4c7b8ac8bc7d723e\WebService.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:OutputPath=bin /p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish /p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://204.158.674.5/msdeploy.axd /p:username=Admin /p:password=Password#321 /p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True /p:DeployIisAppPath=Default WebSite/New /p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC`. It gives me an error `MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified. Switch: WebSite/New`. What might be the issue? – Nevin Raj Victor May 27 '15 at 14:58
@NevinRajVictor A lot late, but probably you should put quotes around `Default WebSite/New` – Anderson Pimentel Mar 31 '20 at 20:53

score 11 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 29 '11 at 07:02

11

You need to put qoutes around the path and file name.
So use MSBuild "C:\Path Name\File Name.Exe" /[Options]

edited Jan 29 '11 at 07:02

user229044

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answered Jan 29 '11 at 01:08

Zamir

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 29 '11 at 08:49

Try to remove the trailing backslash or slash at the end of you publish path and install url

/p:PublishDir="\\BSIIS3\c$\DATA\WEBSITES\benesys.net\benesys.net\TotalEducationTest"
/p:InstallUrl="https://www.benesys.net/benesys.net/TotalEducationTest"

You must have hit a special sequence of characters with the \" and (or) /", but I don't know enough in cmd.exe to figure out.

I personnaly always use Powershell : it's way more friendly and powerful!

Hope it helps!

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 13 '19 at 02:14

Yet another cause and solution to this: Check that you didn't put a space in the wrong place, i.e. in parameters; mine was dotnet -c Release - o /home/some/path (note the space between - and o), I kept looking at the path itself, which was correct and threw me off. Hope that helps! (this was in Bash though it should also apply to Windows)

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Aug 28 '14 at 11:03

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In vs2012 just try to create a Build definition "Test Build" using the default TFS template "DefaultTemplate....xaml" (usually a copy of it)

It will fail with the usual self-explaining-error: "MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.Switch: Activities"

Off course somewhere in the default TFS template some " are missing so msbuild will receive as parameter a non escaped directory containing spaces so will result in multiple projects(?!)

So NEVER use spaces in you TFS Build Definition names, pretty sad and simple at the same time

edited Aug 28 '14 at 11:03

Damien Overeem

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answered Aug 28 '14 at 10:20

user3636264

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This answer could use some tidying up. Very difficult to follow. – theMayer Aug 28 '14 at 10:52
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The point about Never using spaced in your TFS Build Definition names is a good one! This has caught me multiple times. – Valentein Nov 05 '14 at 18:07

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 17 '16 at 17:20

I was using single quotes around the password parameter when I got the error

/p:password='my secret' bad

and changed it to use double quotes to resolve the issue.

/p:password="my secret" good

Likely the same would apply to any parameter that needs quotes for values that contain a space.

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 20:14

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For me I had forgot to add closing quote

/p:DeployOnBuild=true;OutDir="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)

to

/p:DeployOnBuild=true;OutDir="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)"

answered Oct 05 '17 at 20:14

Reza

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I was also missing closing double quotes. – habib Dec 23 '19 at 07:24

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 04 '19 at 15:39

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If you are using Azure DevOps MSBuild task the error may be caused by doubled configuration flag. Please make sure you put $(BuildConfiguration) in specified box instead of MSBuild Arguments one:

answered Dec 04 '19 at 15:39

J.Wincewicz

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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 20 '21 at 07:19

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In my case, it was the switches. I resolved it by using -p instead of /p.

answered Sep 20 '21 at 07:19

Ε Г И І И О

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 24 '14 at 16:22

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This worked for me in TFS MSBuild Argument. Note the number of slashes.

/p:DefaultPackageOutputDir="\\Rdevnet\Visual Studio Projects\Insurance\"

answered Feb 24 '14 at 16:22

Mark Monforti

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score 1 · Answer 14 · edited Oct 26 '17 at 16:17

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If you use default workspace in Jenkins, this might occur. Use custom workspace location without any spaces.

edited Oct 26 '17 at 16:17

liberforce

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answered Oct 26 '17 at 15:18

user8537391

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score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 13:31

For future readers.

I got this error because my specified LOG file had a space in it:

BEFORE:

/l:FileLogger,Microsoft.Build.Engine;logfile=c:\Folder With Spaces\My_Log.log

AFTER: (which resolved it)

/l:FileLogger,Microsoft.Build.Engine;logfile="c:\Folder With Spaces\My_Log.log"

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 10 '20 at 12:15

If you are using Any CPU you may need to put it in single quotes.

Certainly when running in a Dockerfile, I had to use single quotes:

# Fails. Gives: MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.
RUN msbuild ConsoleAppFw451.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform="Any CPU" 

# Passes. Gives: Successfully built 40163c3e0121
RUN msbuild ConsoleAppFw451.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform='Any CPU'

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jan 12 '21 at 20:43

For me adding the path to the solution file in double quotes solved the issue. One of the folders in the path had a blank space in the name and this caused it to consider 2 solution files instead of one. I executed in the following was and it worked.

MSBuild.exe "C:\Folder Name With Space\Project\project.sln"

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jan 04 '22 at 22:05

In my case:

dotnet build -c Release --no-restore -p:Version=${VERSION} -p:Description=${DESCRIPTION}

I had this error:

MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.

But I changed it:

-p:Description=${DESCRIPTION}

to

-p:Description="${DESCRIPTION}"

And works.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Sep 21 '17 at 19:04

0

Just in case someone has the same issue as me, I was missing "/" before one of the "/p" arguments. Not very clear from the description. I hope this helps someone.

answered Sep 21 '17 at 19:04

Johnny

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Aug 09 '20 at 19:59

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I did use solution given in https://www.codingdefined.com/2014/10/solved-msbuild-error-msb1008-only-one.html and that solves the issue. All we need to do is check spaces and ''(check backslashes) in the command

answered Aug 09 '20 at 19:59

Anusha M Shetty

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score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Mar 15 '21 at 11:27

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I ran into this issue with a very simple command, which didn't include any quote, any space, any slash, anything strange at all.

I was using MINGW64 shell.

The same exact command from PowerShell worked instead.

answered Mar 15 '21 at 11:27

o0'.

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score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Apr 25 '22 at 02:27

With .NET 6 CLI, I face the "MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified." when running the test command with -d

Not Work

 dotnet test Abc.Tests.csproj -d "verbose_log.txt"

Work

 dotnet test Abc.Tests.csproj -d="verbose_log.txt"
 dotnet test Abc.Tests.csproj -d:"verbose_log.txt"
 dotnet test Abc.Tests.csproj --diag "verbose_log.txt"

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Feb 15 '23 at 14:42

0

Old thread with a lot of answers ... anyway, my solution was to write out /property (instead of only using /p).

E.g.:

dotnet publish path/to/project/ -c Release /property:AssemblyVersion=1.2.3.4 /property:Version=1.2.3.4-alpha -o path/to/out/folder

answered Feb 15 '23 at 14:42

nilsK

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 29 '23 at 17:20

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In my case it was because I'd combined multiple commands eg: "clean publish". Can't blame me for trying porting Gradle and Maven CLI practices to Dotnet CLI.

answered Aug 29 '23 at 17:20

Godfred

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MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified

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