MSBuild-docker

Description

A docker-compose project for building Visual Studio projects under Linux.
It installs the required dependecies in a Windows VM and then builds an image with wine and the tools required for building.

Requirements

a preinstalled Windows VM disk image with some basic post install setup. (See: dowerx/windows-qemu-docker)
the dependencies' setup files. (By default it installs vs_BuildTools, Windows SDK and Inno Setup 5.6.1)
amd64 CPU with enough cores to handle a VM
enough RAM to handle a VM
a lot of disk space:
- at least a 32 GB Windows VM image (+ overlay at runtime, can be up to 32 GB, but you only need to run this stage once to build the final image)
- ~8.1 GB build tools
- ~13.5 GB msbuild docker image
KVM is recommended

Usage

change the path to you Windows disk image in docker-compose.yml
setup your preferred connfiguration for the VM in .env.windows
copy your setup files to build/share
edit build/share/install-buildtools.ps1 as required
run docker compose up install-msbuild to install the buildtools, you can monitor it via VNC on port 5900
run docker compose build msbuild to create the final docker image, you can remove the buildtools from build/share/msbuild and build/share/inno5 afterwards to save space
copy your project to the src directory
run docker compose run -it msbuild to open a Visual Studio Dev CMD prompt
build ;)

Build environment

Windows SDK -> Z:\opt\msbuild\winsdk
vs_BuildTools -> Z:\opt\msbuild\vs_buildtools
Inno Setup 5 -> C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 5

Example build script

src/build.bat:

set WindowsSdkDir=Z:\opt\msbuild\winsdk
set WindowsSdkVersion=10.0.22621.0

set PATH=Z:\opt\msbuild\vs_buildtools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\;%WindowsSdkDir%\bin\%WindowsSdkVersion%\x64\

msbuild ./project/project.sln ^
    /m:4 ^
    /flp1:logfile=./project/errors.log;errorsonly ^
    /flp2:logfile=./project/warnings.log;warningsonly ^
    /t:Clean;Build ^
    /property:Configuration=Release ^
    /property:WindowsSdkDir=%WindowsSdkDir% ^
    /property:WindowsSdkVersion=%WindowsSdkVersion%

TODO

reduce images size (use alpine linux, filter wine depedencies)
automate dependency setup files' downloads
replace SMB network share with disk image mounting (faster copy/install)
install qemu userspace and make it run on aarch64