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Engine Class

Represents the MSBuild engine.

Namespace:  Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine
Assembly:  Microsoft.Build.Engine (in Microsoft.Build.Engine.dll)

'Declaration
Public Class Engine
'Usage
Dim instance As Engine

In a system of project-to-project dependencies, the Engine maintains the building projects, making it possible to avoid building the same target in the same project more than once in a given build.

The following example creates an Engine object and uses the BuildProjectFile method to build a project file. The FileLogger class is used to log information to a file.

Module Module1
    'Add references to Microsoft.Build.Framework and 
    'Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine 
    Sub Main()
        'Create a new Engine object 
        Dim engine As New Engine()

        'Point to the path that contains the .NET Framework 2.0 CLR and tools
        engine.BinPath = "c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.xxxxx" 

        'Instantiate a new FileLogger to generate a build log 
        Dim logger As New FileLogger()

        'Set logfile parameter to indicate the log destination
        logger.Parameters = "logfile=c:\temp\build.log" 

        'Register the logger with the engine
        engine.RegisterLogger(logger)

        'Build the project file 
        Dim success As Boolean = engine.BuildProjectFile("c:\temp\validate.proj")

        'Unregister all loggers to close the log file
        engine.UnregisterAllLoggers()

        If success Then
            Console.WriteLine("Build succeeded.")
        Else
            Console.WriteLine("Build failed. View C:\temp\build.log for details.")
        End If 
    End Sub 

End Module

System.Object
  Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Engine

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
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