Make it tell me what is out of date in Visual C++ 2005 project

Question

I have a 100+ source file VC++ project in Visual Studio 2005. A lot of those files have custom build steps. There is something that is not updated when I build. Every time I hit the start debug button it prompts me with a "This project is out of date:" dialog and asks if I want to build it. I choose yes, but nothing compiles. I suppose I could take out the source files one by one util I find the problem. There should be an easier way.

Every make equivalent I have used had command line options that would display the out of date target(s) and the step(s) used to build it. I would use this to solve the problem by building normally, then building with the verbose option. The problem file would be the only one built!

I would expect there is an equivalent setting in Visual Studio that I have not found yet. (Tools->options->Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->MsBuild output verbosity) does not give enough information to identify the problem. How do I make VS2005 tell me exactly what it is trying to build?

Answer 1

I've done this in the past using the technique outlined here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vsproject/archive/2009/07/21/enable-c-project-system-logging.aspx

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Have you tried building it from command line using VCBuild ? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/cz553aa1(v=VS.80).aspx

Answer 3

It shouldn't take that long to compare the dates of the source files to the corresponding OBJ files.

It sounds to me like you have a file that is not correctly configured to build. Do you have files other than C++ files? Assembler, help files, etc?