Questions about custom build steps

[martingalvan-volue]

Hi, I'm opening this dummy PR since I don't see an Issues section in this repository, nor any other way to contact maintainers for questions, etc. Trying to post doc questions/issues on the "Developer Community" doesn't work either, since the MS staff will then redirect me to this repository with no clear instructions on how to report issues to you.

I'm looking at the pages for adding custom build steps to an existing .vcxproj file (namely https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/how-to-add-a-custom-build-step-to-msbuild-projects?view=msvc-170 and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/how-to-add-custom-build-tools-to-msbuild-projects?view=msvc-170) but can't find a clear explanation on the semantics of the XML elements involved. For example, the second page I linked shows the following:

<ItemGroup>
  <CustomBuild Include="faq.txt">
    <Message>Copying readme...</Message>
    <Command>copy %(Identity) $(OutDir)%(Identity)</Command>
    <Outputs>$(OutDir)%(Identity)</Outputs>
  </CustomBuild>
</ItemGroup>

What are the possible attributes of CustomBuild? What does Include do? What is %(Identity)? And so on.

If there's already a clear documentation regarding these, it would be good if you could point me to it. Thanks.

[prmerger-automator]

@martingalvan-volue : Thanks for your contribution! The author(s) have been notified to review your proposed change.

[learn-build-service-prod]

Learn Build status updates of commit 88da200:

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File	Status	Preview URL	Details
docs/build/how-to-add-custom-build-tools-to-msbuild-projects.md	✅Succeeded

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[Court72]

@TylerMSFT

Can you address the questions in #5034 (comment)?

#label:"aq-pr-triaged"
@MicrosoftDocs/public-repo-pr-review-team

[TylerMSFT]

The closest thing I know of is Common macros for MSBuild commands and properties.
A better place than dev community (or here) to ask this question is Visual Studio Q and A If you put a link in here to your post, I'll ping one of the devs to take a look at it.

[martingalvan-volue]

The closest thing I know of is Common macros for MSBuild commands and properties. A better place than dev community (or here) to ask this question is Visual Studio Q and A If you put a link in here to your post, I'll ping one of the devs to take a look at it.

I actually cloned this repository, did a grep throughout the entire codebase, and couldn't find any references to e.g. %(Identity) other than this and the link you mentioned, so I believe the documentation is lacking here.

I appreciate the suggestion, but isn't this the repository where all these docs are maintained? If so, I don't see how posting in the Q&A would help me reach the maintainers more directly, since, well, you're now aware of the issue :)

In any case, I posted it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1683814/questions-about-custom-build-steps

[TylerMSFT]

I won't be able to get to this for a very long time. Which is why I suggested the Q&A to see if you could get help faster.

[martingalvan-volue]

I won't be able to get to this for a very long time. Which is why I suggested the Q&A to see if you could get help faster.

I see. In any case, I'm sure you can contact other maintainers much faster than I can through the Q&A :)