Visual Studio Solutions / Multiple project : How to effectively propagate project properties amongst several C++ projects

Question

I am working with a Visual Studio 2005 C++ solution that includes multiple projects (about 30). Based upon my experience, it often becomes annoying to maintain all the prop

Answer 1

I often need to do something similar since I link to the static runtime libraries. I wrote a program to do it for me. It basically scans all of the subdirectories of whatever path you give it and ids any .vcproj files it finds. Then one by one, it opens them modifies them and saves them. Since I only use it rarely, the path is hard coded it, but I think you'll be able to adjust it how you like.

Another approach is to realize that Visual Studio Project files are simply XML files and can be manipulated with your favorite XML class. I've done something using C#'s XmlDocument for updating the include directories when there were A LOT of include directories that I didn't want to type in. :)

I'm including both examples. You will need to modify them to your own needs, but these should get you started.

This is the C++ version:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>
#include <boost/filesystem/convenience.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
#include <boost/regex.hpp>
#include <boost/timer.hpp>

using boost::regex;
using boost::filesystem::path;
using namespace std;

vector<path> GetFileList(path dir, bool recursive, regex matchExp);
void FixProjectFile(path file);
string ReadFile( path &file );
void ReplaceRuntimeLibraries( string& contents );
void WriteFile(path file, string contents);

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    boost::timer stopwatch;
    boost::filesystem::path::default_name_check(boost::filesystem::native);
    regex projFileRegex("(.*)\\.vcproj");
    path rootPath("D:\\Programming\\Projects\\IPP_Decoder");

    vector<path> targetFiles = GetFileList(rootPath, true, projFileRegex);
    double listTimeTaken = stopwatch.elapsed();

    std::for_each(targetFiles.begin(), targetFiles.end(), FixProjectFile);

    double totalTimeTaken = stopwatch.elapsed();
    return 0;
}

void FixProjectFile(path file) {
    string contents = ReadFile(file);
    ReplaceRuntimeLibraries(contents);
    WriteFile(file, contents);
}

vector<path> GetFileList(path dir, bool recursive, regex matchExp) {
    vector<path> paths;
    try {
        boost::filesystem::directory_iterator di(dir);
        boost::filesystem::directory_iterator end_iter;
        while (di != end_iter) {
            try {
                if (is_directory(*di)) {
                    if (recursive) {
                        vector<path> tempPaths = GetFileList(*di, recursive, matchExp);
                        paths.insert(paths.end(), tempPaths.begin(), tempPaths.end());
                    }
                } else {
                    if (regex_match(di->string(), matchExp)) {
                        paths.push_back(*di);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (std::exception& e) {
                string str = e.what();
                cout << str << endl;
                int breakpoint = 0;
            }
            ++di;
        }
    }
    catch (std::exception& e) {
        string str = e.what();
        cout << str << endl;
        int breakpoint = 0;
    }
    return paths;
}

string ReadFile( path &file ) {
//  cout << "Reading file: " << file.native_file_string() << "\n";
    ifstream infile (file.native_file_string().c_str(), ios::in | ios::ate);
    assert (infile.is_open());

    streampos sz = infile.tellg();
    infile.seekg(0, ios::beg);

    vector<char> v(sz);
    infile.read(&v[0], sz);

    string str (v.empty() ? string() : string (v.begin(), v.end()).c_str());

    return str;
}

void ReplaceRuntimeLibraries( string& contents ) {
    regex releaseRegex("RuntimeLibrary=\"2\"");
    regex debugRegex("RuntimeLibrary=\"3\"");
    string releaseReplacement("RuntimeLibrary=\"0\"");
    string debugReplacement("RuntimeLibrary=\"1\"");
    contents = boost::regex_replace(contents, releaseRegex, releaseReplacement);
    contents = boost::regex_replace(contents, debugRegex, debugReplacement);
}

void WriteFile(path file, string contents) {
    ofstream out(file.native_file_string().c_str() ,ios::out|ios::binary|ios::trunc); 
    out.write(contents.c_str(), contents.length());
}

---

This is the C# version. Enjoy...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.IO;

namespace ProjectUpdater
{
    class Program
    {
        static public String rootPath = "D:\\dev\\src\\co\\UMC6\\";
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            String path = "D:/dev/src/co/UMC6/UMC.vcproj";
            FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite);
            XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
            xmldoc.Load(fs);
            XmlNodeList oldFiles = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("Files");
            XmlNode rootNode = oldFiles[0].ParentNode;
            rootNode.RemoveChild(oldFiles[0]);

            XmlNodeList priorNode = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("References");
            XmlElement filesNode = xmldoc.CreateElement("Files");
            rootNode.InsertAfter(filesNode, priorNode[0]);

            DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(rootPath);
            foreach (DirectoryInfo thisDir in di.GetDirectories())
            {
                AddAllFiles(xmldoc, filesNode, thisDir.FullName);
            }


            List<String> allDirectories = GetAllDirectories(rootPath);
            for (int i = 0; i < allDirectories.Count; ++i)
            {
                allDirectories[i] = allDirectories[i].Replace(rootPath, "$(ProjectDir)");
            }
            String includeDirectories = "\"D:\\dev\\lib\\inc\\ipp\\\"";
            foreach (String dir in allDirectories) 
            {
                includeDirectories += ";\"" + dir + "\"";
            }

            XmlNodeList toolNodes = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("Tool");
            foreach (XmlNode node in toolNodes)
            {
                if (node.Attributes["Name"].Value == "VCCLCompilerTool") {
                    try
                    {
                        node.Attributes["AdditionalIncludeDirectories"].Value = includeDirectories;
                    }
                    catch (System.Exception e)
                    {
                        XmlAttribute newAttr = xmldoc.CreateAttribute("AdditionalIncludeDirectories");
                        newAttr.Value = includeDirectories;
                        node.Attributes.InsertBefore(newAttr, node.Attributes["PreprocessorDefinitions"]);
                    }

                }
            }
            String pathOut = "D:/dev/src/co/UMC6/UMC.xml";
            FileStream fsOut = new FileStream(pathOut, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.ReadWrite);
            xmldoc.Save(fsOut);

        }
        static void AddAllFiles(XmlDocument doc, XmlElement parent, String path) {
            DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
            XmlElement thisElement = doc.CreateElement("Filter");
            thisElement.SetAttribute("Name", di.Name);
            foreach (FileInfo fi in di.GetFiles())
            {
                XmlElement thisFile = doc.CreateElement("File");
                String relPath = fi.FullName.Replace(rootPath, ".\\");
                thisFile.SetAttribute("RelativePath", relPath);
                thisElement.AppendChild(thisFile);
            }
            foreach (DirectoryInfo thisDir in di.GetDirectories())
            {
                AddAllFiles(doc, thisElement, thisDir.FullName);
            }
            parent.AppendChild(thisElement);
        }
        static List<String> GetAllDirectories(String dir)
        {
            DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(dir);
            Console.WriteLine(dir);

            List<String> files = new List<String>();
            foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in di.GetDirectories())
            {
                List<String> newList = GetAllDirectories(subDir.FullName);
                files.Add(subDir.FullName);
                files.AddRange(newList);
            }
            return files;
        }
        static List<String> GetAllFiles(String dir)
        {
            DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(dir);
            Console.WriteLine(dir);

            List<String> files = new List<String>();
            foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in di.GetDirectories())
            {
                List<String> newList = GetAllFiles(subDir.FullName);
                files.AddRange(newList);
            }
            foreach (FileInfo fi in di.GetFiles())
            {
                files.Add(fi.FullName);
            }
            return files;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

*.vcxproj files are msbuild files. So you just take a property you don't want in all your project files and delete it. Then put it in your property sheet. Then make sure all the projects files properly import that property sheet.

This can be incredibly tedious for hundreds of files. I wrote a tool make this interactive:

https://github.com/chris1248/MsbuildRefactor

Answer 3

I think you need to investigate properties files, i.e. *.vsprops (older) or *.props (latest)

You do need to add the properties file manually to each project, but once that's done, you have multiple projects, but one .[vs]props file. If you change the properties, all projects inherit the new settings.

Answer 4

As suggested, you should look at Property Sheets (aka .vsprops files).
I wrote a very short introduction to this feature here.

Answer 5

Yes, I'd definitely suggest using CMake. CMake is the best tool (I think I've actually tried them all) which can generate Studio project files.

I also had the issue of converting existing .vcproj files into CMakeLists.txt, and I wrote a Ruby-script which takes care of most of the conversion. The script doesn't handle things like post-build steps and such, so some tweaking is necessary, but it will save you the hassle of pulling all the source file names from the .vcproj files.