VS2017RC3 - Portable class library in TargetFrameworks errors on build

[JamesNK]

I used the same format that I did in project.sjon:

<TargetFrameworks>net45;net40;net35;net20;netstandard1.0;.NETPortable,Version=v4.5,Profile=Profile259</TargetFrameworks>

Error:

MSB4086	A numeric comparison was attempted on "$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)" that evaluates to "" instead of a number, in condition " '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '3.5' ".

[clairernovotny]

You need to use the short TFM and use properties:

https://github.com/onovotny/Zeroconf/blob/dev/Zeroconf/Zeroconf.csproj#L32-L37

For PCL 259, the properties would be:

  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'portable-net45+win8+wpa81+wp8'">
    <TargetFrameworkIdentifier>.NETPortable</TargetFrameworkIdentifier>
    <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
    <TargetFrameworkProfile>Profile259</TargetFrameworkProfile>
    <NugetTargetMoniker>.NETPortable,Version=v0.0,Profile=Profile259</NugetTargetMoniker>
    <LanguageTargets>$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\Portable\$(TargetFrameworkVersion)\Microsoft.Portable.CSharp.targets</LanguageTargets>
  </PropertyGroup>

[clairernovotny]

Note that the Version=v0.0 bit is due to a bug and is being tracked here: dotnet/sdk#492

But the above should work for you.

Downside though -- requires Windows to build, not dotnet build. You need to run msbuild /t:restore then either msbuild /t:build or msbuild /t:pack to build and/or pack and build the project. That makes it use the desktop MSBuild, which is probably needed for the tasks that are in the Portable framework targets.

[JamesNK]

I have a PCL build working.

Will PCL ever work with dotnet build?

[srivatsn]

https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/5504 tracks building non-.NET Core projects with the CLI.

Adding these propertygroups to the SDK so that this is supported OOB is tracked by dotnet/sdk#491

[JamesNK]

@onovotny How do you figure out where on disk msbuild for VS 15.0 is located? Is there a registry key with that information somewhere? I don't want to bake the path on my local computer into a build script.

[clairernovotny]

There's no real path that I know of, but that's the value used in the new project templates. It's controlled by MSBuildExtensionsPath32, which is set by MSBuild.

Do file -> new portable class library then see what the imports statement is at the bottom.

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\Portable\$(TargetFrameworkVersion)\Microsoft.Portable.CSharp.targets" />

It's the location that all of the project templates use, so I have to assume it's safe to use that path elsewhere as well. Otherwise PCL projects won't load/build at all for VS :)

[clairernovotny]

Doh, just re-read your question and totally missed it...need coffee!

https://github.com/Microsoft/vssetup.powershell

That's probably what you want; it'll show you the available instances of VS (and from there you can get the path to MSBuild from the top level folder).

[jnm2]

See also dotnet/msbuild#1377