How to Automatically Stop a Visual Studio Build on an Error

When you do a build in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008, the compiler will attempt to build the entire solution even if one of the projects in the solution fails to build. This can be annoying if your solution has a lot of projects in it and one of the first ones fails to build. This article shows you how to automatically stop a Visual Studio build on an error.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Visual Studio 2005 or 2008

1. 
   Visual Studio menu for Macros IDE

   Run Visual Studio and go to Tools->Macros->Macros IDE. Alternatively, you can use the shortcut key which is Alt+F11. This will bring up the interface for defining macros that respond to various environment events in Visual Studio.

2. 
   Macros editor

   Double click on "MyMacros" and then double click on "EnvironmentEvents". This should bring up some VB script code in the main editor window.

3. 
   Macros editor with OnBuildProjConfigDone

   Paste the following code in right before the "End Module" line of code:
   Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigDone(ByVal Project As String, ByVal ProjectConfig As String, ByVal Platform As String, ByVal SolutionConfig As String, ByVal Success As Boolean) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildProjConfigDone
   
   If Success = False Then
   DTE.ExecuteCommand("Build.Cancel")
   End If
   
   End Sub
   
   This macro will get run for the "OnBuildProjConfigDone" build event which gets fired each time a project finishes building. The macro checks to see whether or not the build was successful. If the build failed then the macro will execute the "Build.Cancel" command which instructs Visual Studio to stop the build. It's worth noting that if there are multiple errors in a single project the build will not stop on the first error in the project but it will stop after a project completes its attempt to build.

[sonicth]

on 7/12/2009 i've modified it to handle fatal errors :p
thats somewhat of a hack, but interesting indeed, thanks for posting!

Private Sub OutputWindowEvents_OnPaneUpdated(ByVal pPane As OutputWindowPane) Handles OutputWindowEvents.PaneUpdated
If Not (pPane.Name = "Build") Then Exit Sub

pPane.TextDocument.Selection.SelectAll()
Dim Context As String = pPane.TextDocument.Selection.Text
pPane.TextDocument.Selection.EndOfDocument()

Dim found As Integer = Context.IndexOf(": error ")
Dim foundFatal As Integer = Context.IndexOf(": fatal error")

If found > 0 Or foundFatal > 0 Then
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Build.Cancel")
End If

End Sub

[karileighk]

on 7/9/2009 This will be helpful to know for if I get it.

[ericmuyser]

on 7/5/2009 I came up with a better macro guys. It stops immediately after the first error/s (soon as build window is updated).

Visual Studio -> Tools -> Macros -> Macro IDE... (or ALT+F11)

Private Sub OutputWindowEvents_OnPaneUpdated(ByVal pPane As OutputWindowPane) Handles OutputWindowEvents.PaneUpdated
If Not (pPane.Name = "Build") Then Exit Sub

pPane.TextDocument.Selection.SelectAll()
Dim Context As String = pPane.TextDocument.Selection.Text
pPane.TextDocument.Selection.EndOfDocument()

Dim found As Integer = Context.IndexOf(": error ")

If found > 0 Then
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Build.Cancel")
End If

End Sub

Hope it works out for you guys.