Best .NET build tool [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
NAnt or MSBuild, which one to choose and when?

What is the best build tool for .NET?

I currently use NAnt but only because I have experience with Ant. Is MSBuild preferred?

Answer 1

There is another new build tool (a very intelligent wrapper) called NUBuild. It's lightweight, open source and extremely easy to setup and provides almost no-touch maintenance. I really like this new tool, and we have made it a standard tool for our continuous build and integration of our projects (we have about 400 projects across 75 developers). Try it out.

http://nubuild.codeplex.com/

• Easy to use command line interface
• Ability to target all .NET Framework versions, that is, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5
• Supports XML based configuration
• Supports both project and file references
• Automatically generates the “complete ordered build list” for a given project – No touch maintenance.
• Ability to detect and display circular dependencies
• Perform parallel build - automatically decides which of the projects in the generated build list can be built independently.
• Ability to handle proxy assemblies
• Provides a visual clue to the build process, for example, showing “% completed”, “current status”, etc.
• Generates detailed execution log both in XML and text format
• Easily integrated with CruiseControl.NET continuous integration system
• Can use custom logger like XMLLogger when targeting 2.0 + version
• Ability to parse error logs
• Ability to deploy built assemblies to user specified location
• Ability to synchronize source code with source-control system
• Version management capability

Answer 2

I use a commercial software, Automated Build Studio for the build purpose.

Answer 3

Rake and Albacore is an excellent combination. The power of Ruby and no XML.

.NET Open Source 5 - .NET Automation with Rake and Albacore by Liam McLennan [Tekpub.com]

Answer 4

It also depends on what you're building. The MSBuild SDC Task library has a couple of special tasks. For example, for AD, BizTalk, etc.

There are over 300 tasks included in this library including tasks for: creating websites, creating application pools, creating ActiveDirectory users, running FxCop, configuring virtual servers, creating zip files, configuring COM+, creating folder shares, installing into the GAC, configuring SQL Server, configuring BizTalk 2004 and BizTalk 2006, etc.

Answer 5

Generally speaking, I get the impression that NAnt offers more flexibility compared to MSBuild, whereas (with my relatively simple needs) I've been fine with the latter so far.

Answer 6

We actually use a combination of NAnt and MSBuild with CruiseControl. NAnt is used for script flow control and calls MSBuild to compile projects. After the physical build is triggered, NAnt is used to publish the individual project build outputs to a shared location.

I am not sure this is the best process. I think many of us are still looking for a great build tool. One promising thing I heard recently on .NET Rocks, episode 362, is James Kovac's PSake, a build system he based entirely on PowerShell. It sounds really promising since what you can do with PowerShell is fairly limitless in theory.