msbuild.clean

This is a tool to clean build output folders for (especially .net) MSBuild projects.

what does it do?

Yes, you can use dotnet clean or msbuild /t:clean to clean build output from your solutions ... however, these tools ... well these

• don't clean old build targets (after migrating from net6.0 to net8.0, net6.0 output doesn't get cleaned)
• don't delete default publishing folders (which can be huge)
• dotnet clean can have limitations cleaning older framework-style projects

Yes, you can just use git/source control to nuke anything not under source control

• not all projects are under git/source control
• if the build output isn't below the repo, this doesn't work (dotnet\runtime)

Imagine you had a sln/csproj targeting net6.0, you have existing build output below /bin/Debug/net6.0, you switch to net8.0 ... happy days cleaning up the old build output.

What this tool does

• traverse directories looking for .sln .sln, .slnx, .slnf (the latter two preliminary)
• process all configurations from the .sln
• invokes msbuild to evaluate the build output related properties from the project file per configuration (which is why this is so s-s-s-slow)
• enables you to delete only non-current build output (TagetFramework no longer in proj file)
• validates tfms for .net projects to make sure the correct stuff gets nuked
• by default doesn't delete, only dump stats and the command line to delete folders. Nothing gets touched unless you specify --delete

Upside:

• by default doesn't delete anything, just dumps statistics and rmdir /q /s ...
• confirmation configurable

Note:

• Always use -p/--parallel to speed up the process.
• global.json ... doe to the consistent /s way msbuild, dotnet msbuild, and dotnet build handle global.json ...

Sample

msbuild.clean --root <rootDir> --depth 3 --parallel 24

Options

• -v, --verbosity, --log: LogLevel (Debug,Verbose,Info,[Warning],Error)
• --confirm: ConfirmLevel
• --dry-run: [DEFAULT] do not delete, just dump stats and a list of folders to delete
• --delete: delete folders/files after confirmation
• --force: every tool needs an option --force
• --delete-empty-directories: delete directory even if no files/subdirectories.
• --delete-files: delete files instead of directories
• --non-current, --noncurrent: delete only build output which is not targeting the current TargetFramework/TargetFrameworks from the csproj. Uses a list of tfms and the basic out dir structure \bin<config><tfm>.
• --obj: [DEFAULT] also clean BaseIntermediateOutputPath
• --msbuild: explicit path to MSbuild.exe or MSbuild.dll. By default, the tool tries to guess the correct MSBuild location, preferring Visual Studio installations
• --root: root path or path to .sln
• -npm, --non-parallel: process every sln and projs sequentially. p!=np. Note-to-self: alias with unparallel for rock climbing enthusiasts.
• -p, --parallel: processes sln, projs, and configurations slightly parallel (if it's slow, that's fine. If it's extremely slow, get a new machine)
• --depth: if root dir is directory, the depth to which the tool scans for .sln
• <path>: path to sln or path to root dir can also be specified as last argument. If missing, current directory used

msbuild WERfaults

msbuild getproperty pukes when it encounters an error during evaluation.