Visual Studio (2008) 'Clean Solution' Option

Question

What does this option do? It is accessible from the Build menu.

Answer 1

careful when you are cleaning a solution; when you do clean a solution and if you reference to a library (say nhibernate) in your project and if that library has a dependency ( say iesi.collections) , then you'll see iesi.collections will be deleted even if you rebuilt the solution and you have to put that dll to your folder, again. or you can also reference to iesi.collections and choose copy-local : yes option from its properties

Answer 2

Erases files created during compilation process. Effectively forces a full recompile/build next time.

Answer 3

I wanted this to be a comment but apparently need 50 rep.

To warn others, I find the rebuild solution doesn't do a clean myself. I'll often not I need to clean it and build/rebuild it after for it to work - I think rebuild it's self forces a full compile without clean and overrides everything, but does not get rid of the extras.

Did not look into what rebuild does code wise, just a general observation in case someone else has the same issue.

Answer 4

It deletes all the compiled and temporary files associated with a solution. It ensures that the next build is a full one, rather than only changed files being recompiled.

Answer 5

It deletes all the object code generated during previous compilation/build. It deletes all below kind of files:-

*.obj - object code

*.pdb - program debug databse file

*.bsc - source browser databse

*.ilk - incremental linker file

*.sbr - source browser intermediate file

*.idb - rebuild dependency file

*.lib - library file

*.exe - executable

JFYI - Even a Rebuild All command will do all this and then go on to build the complete set of source files.

-AD

Answer 6

FYI, neither Clean nor Rebuild will delete non-build files, eg files copied during a pre-build command. I had been confused about that!