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Jeff G
Jeff G

Reputation: 4677

Visual Studio C++ Project File CustomBuild Task: Filter OutputItemType by File Extension

I have defined a custom build step in a Visual Studio 2019 C++ project file (.vcxproj) that generates .h and .cc files. There is a Custom Build Tool option entitled "Add Outputs to Item Type", where I can select one of "C/C++ header" or "C/C++ compiler". Is there some way to edit the resulting project file such that the .cc files are added as "C/C++ compiler" and the .h files are added as "C/C++ header"?

My intended work-around is to simply remove the generated .h files from the list of Custom Build Tool outputs. That work-around has the disadvantage that the build will fail if one of the .h files is missing or stale. I'm hoping for a solution that resolves this deficiency.

The following illustrates what I have attempted within the .vcxproj file:

<OutputItemType Condition="'%(Extension)'=='.cc'">ClCompile</OutputItemType>

Upvotes: 0

Views: 711

Answers (1)

LoLance
LoLance

Reputation: 28086

Not sure about how you define the Custom Build Step. But custom build step is not the only way.

For C++ projects, msbuild provides Custom Build Tool, Custom Build Step, Build events and custom targets. You can achieve same requirements by this script:

  <Target Name="CustomTarget" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
    <Exec Command="xx.exe ..."/> <!--Call the tool.exe to generate files somewhere. We can save them in temp folder.--> 
    <Copy SourceFiles="xxx" DestinationFolder="xxx"/> <!--Use copy task to copy the generated files to project folder-->
    <ItemGroup>
      <ClCompile Include="Path of Temp folder\*.cc" />
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>

And see this, I checked some related documents and confirm OutputItemType is something about ProjectReference. I'm not sure if this syntax supports other Items.

Upvotes: 1

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