visual studio 2013 - How to get a build to fail if project references are not as expected -

on project changed project references hack done. caused ci build failures , other waste. possible create msbuild task can @ project references solution wide check project references against known configuration, , build fail in case of unexpected changes. realise masks deeper problem waste generated last time happened considered unacceptable , i've been asked make sure doesn't happen again.

you use msbuild inline task. task search forbidden references inside files of type csproj , emit logs when finds them. fail build based on task output hasforbiddenreferences.

this approach usable if want execute task 1 time check csproj's. if want each project check itself, must alter task accept project's path , checking.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <project toolsversion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">     <usingtask     taskname="checkforbiddenreferences"     taskfactory="codetaskfactory"     assemblyfile="$(msbuildtoolspath)\microsoft.build.tasks.v4.0.dll" >     <parametergroup>       <solutiondir parametertype="system.string" required="true" />       <hasforbiddenreferences parametertype="system.boolean" output="true" />     </parametergroup>     <task>       <reference include="system.xml.dll"/>       <using namespace="system"/>       <using namespace="system.io"/>       <using namespace="system.linq"/>       <using namespace="system.xml.linq"/>       <code type="fragment" language="cs">             <![cdata[                     hasforbiddenreferences = false;              // load forbidden references here             var forbiddenreferences = new[] { "forbidden1", "forbidden2", "forbidden3" };              var files = directory.getfiles(solutiondir, "*.csproj", searchoption.alldirectories);             xnamespace msbuild = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003";              foreach (var f in files.where(f =>             {                 var doc = xdocument.parse(file.readalltext(f));                  return doc                         .descendants(msbuild + "reference")                         .union(doc.descendants(msbuild + "projectreference"))                         .any(r => forbiddenreferences.any(fr =>                         {                             var forbid = r.attribute("include").value.contains(fr);                              if (forbid)                                 log.logmessage(string.format("forbidden reference {0} on project {1}", fr, f));                              return forbid;                         }));              }))             {                 log.logmessage(string.format("file {0} contains forbidden references", f));                 hasforbiddenreferences = true;             }             ]]>       </code>     </task>   </usingtask> </project> 

call task usual:

<target name="checkreferences" > <checkforbiddenreferences solutiondir="$(solutiondir)" >      <output propertyname="hasforbiddenreferences" taskparameter="hasforbiddenreferences" /> </checkforbiddenreferences>  <error condition="$(hasforbiddenreferences)" text="build failed due forbidden references"/>   </target>