The OutputPath property is not set for project

Question

Building my Jenkins/MSBuild solution gives me this error

c:\\WINDOWS\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v4.0.30319\\Microsoft.Common.targets(483,9): error : 
The OutputP         


        

Answer 1

I had this witha slightly unusual SLN/CSPROJ file arrangement:

I had project files:

• A.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
• B.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
• C.csproj, a "common" library used by both A and B with configurations "Dev" and "Production"

And I had SLN files:

• AC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project A and the common library
• BC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project B and the common library
• ABC.sln, with configuration "Dev" - this is used by developers in VS to write new code without having to keep opening different solutions (this answer is a simplified view of a 55-project solution)

I'd made an edit to the common library and introduced a dependency on project A. AC.sln would still build in jenkins but BC.sln gave an error saying:

The OutputPath property is not set for project 'A.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='Debug' Platform='AnyCPU'.

It was initially puzzling because we don't even have a Debug config anywhere in any project; find in files for Debug| turned up 0 hits

ABC.sln that the human developers use in VS would also build fine. Building BC.sln gave an error that A.dll wasn't found

When the circular irresolvable problem of C depending on A was removed, everything started working again