Customize the solution build

When MSBuild builds a solution file, it first translates it internally into a project file and then builds that. The generated project file imports before.{solutionname}.sln.targets before defining any targets and after.{solutionname}.sln.targets after importing targets, including targets installed to the $(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\SolutionFile\ImportBefore and $(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\SolutionFile\ImportAfter directories.

For example, you could define a new target to write a custom log message after building MyCustomizedSolution.sln by creating a file in the same directory named after.MyCustomizedSolution.sln.targets that contains

<Project>
 <Target Name="EmitCustomMessage" AfterTargets="Build">
   <Message Importance="High" Text="The solution has completed the Build target" />
 </Target>
</Project>

The solution build is separate from the project builds, so settings here do not affect project builds.

Important

Customizing the solution build in this way applies only to command-line builds with MSBuild.exe. It does not apply to builds inside Visual Studio. For this reason, it is not recommended to put customization at the solution level. A better alternative for customizing all projects in a solution is to use Directory.Build.props and Directory.build.targets files in the solution folder, as discussed elsewhere in this article.

When you have many solution files that you want to extend in the same way, but you don't want to write to the $(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\SolutionFile\ folder (which usually requires elevated permissions), you can create the files Directory.Solution.props and Directory.Solution.targets and place them in the root path above the solution files you want to extend. Directory.Solution.props is imported at the beginning of the solution build, and Directory.Solution.targets is imported at the end of the solution build. When you build a solution file, Directory.Build.props and Directory.Build.targets are not imported, so you must use Directory.Solution.props and Directory.Solution.targets instead. They do not implicitly import each other.

When you have Directory.Solution.props or Directory.Solution.targets in a root folder, but you have a solution under that folder that you don't want to import them, you can use the solution-specific files mentioned previously before.{solutionname}.sln.targets and after.{solutionname}.sln.targets to set the properties $(ImportDirectorySolutionProps) and $(ImportDirectorySolutionTargets) to false. Or, you can use the properties $(DirectorySolutionPropsPath) and $(DirectorySolutionTargetsPath) to specify a different location for those files. This could be helpful if you have various subsets of your solutions that require certain property values or targets common to the subsets.

Related content

• Customize your build.