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Something's-wrong-in-my-build.md

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📝 This is incomplete, put here in the spirit of "something is better than nothing".

Debugging Issues With a Build

To debug a tricky problem with your build, try these tools in order:

  1. Diagnostic-level logs show you project state changes and inputs to all tasks
  2. The MSBuild preprocessor msbuild /pp:out.xml shows you the full logic of the project in a single file (so you can easily grep around for "what uses this property?" and "where is this target defined?")
  3. Add a target to debug project state of specific interest at specific times:
<Target Name="PrintfDebugger" BeforeTargets="Something">
  <Message Importance="High" Text="PropOfInterest: $(PropOfInterest)" />
  <Message Importance="High" Text="ItemOfInterest: @(ItemOfInterest)" />
</Target>

"Unable to locate the .NET Core SDK"

When building via Visual Studio or the command line, you may encounter an error resembling:

error : Unable to locate the .NET Core SDK. Check that it is installed and that the version specified in global.json (if any) matches the installed version.
error MSB4236: The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk' specified could not be found.

It's possible that this is because MSBuild is using a .NET Core SDK preview. Users on release versions of Visual Studio must opt into using these previews.

First, verify the global.json file in your repository is using a preview version of .NET Core SDK such as "3.0.100-preview5-011568". Next, open Visual Studio and navigate to Tools -> Options -> Preview Features and check the Use previews of the .NET Core SDK box.

Tools

Many debugging tools listed here.

MSBuildStructuredLog can be used to get a clearer idea of what's going on in your build. MSBuildStructuredLog is graphical interface over MSBuild binary logs that visualizes a structured representation of executed targets, tasks, properties, and item values. It can be easier to look though than the diagnostic log.