FIX: Custom Build Commands Fail When Built from Command Line (150287)

SYMPTOMS

When you build a Microsoft Visual C++ project from the command line with Nmake.exe, the custom build commands you specify in the build settings fail, and cause the build to fail. However, when you build the project within Developer Studio, the commands work correctly. This behavior occurs when you specify multiple build commands for a file or group of files, and specify more than one output file that is created by the build commands.

CAUSE

The problem is caused by a backslash (\) character added to the end of each build command in the .mak file.

RESOLUTION

There are two possible workarounds:

Modify the .mak file, changing the \ at the end of each build command to an asterisk (*) character. Note that the IDE overwrites the .mak file whenever you change any project settings, and the \ is put back. -or-
Instead of specifying the multiple commands in the build settings, specify a single command that is a batch (.bat) file to invoke the commands. You need to pass parameters to the batch file in order to specify the input and output file names for the custom build commands.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in Visual C++ version 5.0.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior occurs because Developer Studio writes the makefile so the multiple commands are invoked on one command line. This causes the command interpreter (Cmd.exe on Windows NT, and Command.com on Windows 95) to report an error, because the result is not a valid command line. The commands need to be passed on separate command lines, or separated by a command line separator, such as the ampersand (&).

Also, because there are multiple output files, the same commands are invoked repeatedly for each output file.