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diff --git a/build/docs/visualstudio.rst b/build/docs/visualstudio.rst deleted file mode 100644 index 3fbf28e94b..0000000000 --- a/build/docs/visualstudio.rst +++ /dev/null @@ -1,100 +0,0 @@ -.. _build_visualstudio: - -====================== -Visual Studio Projects -====================== - -The build system contains alpha support for generating Visual Studio -project files to aid with development. - -To generate Visual Studio project files, you'll need to have a configured tree:: - - mach configure - -(If you have built recently, your tree is already configured.) - -Then, simply generate the Visual Studio build backend:: - - mach build-backend -b VisualStudio - -If all goes well, the path to the generated Solution (``.sln``) file should be -printed. You should be able to open that solution with Visual Studio 2010 or -newer. - -Currently, output is hard-coded to the Visual Studio 2010 format. If you open -the solution in a newer Visual Studio release, you will be prompted to upgrade -projects. Simply click through the wizard to do that. - -Structure of Solution -===================== - -The Visual Studio solution consists of hundreds of projects spanning thousands -of files. To help with organization, the solution is divided into the following -trees/folders: - -Build Targets - This folder contains common build targets. The *full* project is used to - perform a full build. The *binaries* project is used to build just binaries. - The *visual-studio* project can be built to regenerate the Visual Studio - project files. - - Performing the *clean* action on any of these targets will clean the - *entire* build output. - -Binaries - This folder contains common binaries that can be executed from within - Visual Studio. If you are building the Firefox desktop application, - the *firefox* project will launch firefox.exe. You probably want one of - these set to your startup project. - -Libraries - This folder contains entries for each static library that is produced as - part of the build. These roughly correspond to each directory in the tree - containing C/C++. e.g. code from ``dom/base`` will be contained in the - ``dom_base`` project. - - These projects don't do anything when built. If you build a project here, - the *binaries* build target project is built. - -Updating Project Files -====================== - -As you pull and update the source tree, your Visual Studio files may fall out -of sync with the build configuration. The tree should still build fine from -within Visual Studio. But source files may be missing and IntelliSense may not -have the proper build configuration. - -To account for this, you'll want to periodically regenerate the Visual Studio -project files. You can do this within Visual Studio by building the -``Build Targets :: visual-studio`` project or by running -``mach build-backend -b VisualStudio`` from the command line. - -Currently, regeneration rewrites the original project files. **If you've made -any customizations to the solution or projects, they will likely get -overwritten.** We would like to improve this user experience in the -future. - -Moving Project Files Around -=========================== - -The produced Visual Studio solution and project files should be portable. -If you want to move them to a non-default directory, they should continue -to work from wherever they are. If they don't, please file a bug. - -Invoking mach through Visual Studio -=================================== - -It's possible to build the tree via Visual Studio. There is some light magic -involved here. - -Alongside the Visual Studio project files is a batch script named ``mach.bat``. -This batch script sets the environment variables present in your *MozillaBuild* -development environment at the time of Visual Studio project generation -and invokes *mach* inside an msys shell with the arguments specified to the -batch script. This script essentially allows you to invoke mach commands -inside the MozillaBuild environment without having to load MozillaBuild. - -While projects currently only utilize the ``mach build`` command, the batch -script does not limit it's use: any mach command can be invoked. Developers -may abuse this fact to add custom projects and commands that invoke other -mach commands. |