How to change verbosity of the MSBuild task?

Question

I'd like to have a different verbosity for the msbuild project invoked from the commandline, and those invoked by the MSBuild task from within the project. For example:

Inside my.proj:

<Target Name=Foo>
  <MSBuild Projects="a.csproj;b.csproj;c.csproj"/>
</Target>

On the commandline:

msbuild /v:d my.proj

now when the MSBuild task builds the .csproj files, it does it with detailed verbosity as well. However I'd want to build it with minimal verbosity.

I know it is possible to invoke msbuild manually like so:

<Target Name=Foo>
  <Exec Command="msbuild /v:m a.csproj"/>
  <Exec Command="msbuild /v:m b.csproj"/>
  <Exec Command="msbuild /v:m c.csproj"/>
</Target>

or in practice

<Target Name=Foo>
  <Exec Command="msbuild /v:m %(Projectlist.Identity)"/>
</Target>

and this works well off course, but then I cannot get the functionality of the BuildInParallel switch anymore (I do not think it is possible to invoke msbuild from the commandline with multiple projects without them being contained in a solution?)

Update

I went with Ludwo's option: basically create a custom logger that holds two ConsoleLoggers as a member. One has the verbosity passed at command line, the other one is 'minimal'. The logger registers for all events and passes them to one of the loggers depending on whether a csproj file is currently being built or not. Output looks exactly like normal, except it doesn't include thousands of lines from the csproj files.

This post by Scott Hanselman might enlightn you. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/FasterBuildsWithMSBuildUsingParallelBuildsAndMulticoreCPUs.aspx — Carlo Kuip, Oct 23 '11 at 10:47
+ interesting read. However my projects are not contained in solutions, so the `/m` switch has not the same effect as effectively building projects in parallel: they are still built sequentially (I'll update the question to reflect this) — stijn, Oct 23 '11 at 11:09
On one of our projects we used MSBuild Sidekick to figure out how to build our product hierachy, might be worth a look to assist on the parrallisation of tasks as well. http://www.attrice.info/msbuild/ Seems odd that verbosity is coupled to parallelism. — Carlo Kuip, Oct 23 '11 at 12:30
it's not really coupled, it's just a side effect of me trying to get around the verbosity of the MSBuild task by invoking msbuild manually — stijn, Oct 23 '11 at 16:49

Ludwo · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-25T12:54:45.303

You have two options (at least) :)

Create one additional msbuild script for building abc projects "BuildABC.proj"
```
    <Target Name="BuildABC">
      <MSBuild Projects="a.csproj;b.csproj;c.csproj" BuildInParallel="true"/>
    </Target>
```
In your parent script execute MSBuild using Exec task and call "BuildABC.proj" with minimal verbosity
```
    <Target Name=Foo>
      <Exec Command="msbuild /v:m /m:2 BuildABC.proj"/>
    </Target>
```
You have to pass explicitly all parent properties needed in the BuildABC project to msbuild /p parameter.
Use custom logger. See this how to do it. In this case you can use your original script:
```
<Target Name=Foo>
  <MSBuild Projects="a.csproj;b.csproj;c.csproj"/>
</Target>
```
In your custom logger do not log anything related to e.g. "a.csproj" project between ProjectStarted and ProjectFinished events where e.ProjectFile == "a.csproj" (to disable diagnostic logging on "a.csproj" project while building parent project with diagnostic verbosity)

yeah I already tried this approach, as well as calling back into the same buildscript (eg in parent.proj call ``; this does work, but has one *major* disadvantage: all properties from the parent build script are not available in the other unless passed explicitely. Which becomes a major PITA when there are a lot of properties, plus each time one is added you have to add is in two places. — stijn, Oct 25 '11 at 11:47
Thanks! I'll look into the custom logger solution when I have some time, it does look promising. — stijn, Oct 25 '11 at 13:37

How to change verbosity of the MSBuild task?

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