How can I install the VS2017 version of msbuild on a build server without installing the IDE?

213
votes

Historically, this has been done with the Microsoft Build Tools. But it seems that the Build Tools may not be available for versions after 2015. The replacement appears to be the Visual Studio build tools, which doesn't seem to have a real homepage yet.

I downloaded the VS2017 Professional installer, and went to the Individual Components tab. Right away, the summary is telling me that the Visual Studio core editor is there, taking up 753MB. I don't want the editor. Just msbuild. There is no way to unselect the editor.

Is there a way I can install the latest version of msbuild without also installing the Visual Studio IDE?

1
msbuildvisual-studio-2017visual-studio-2019build-toolsbuild-server
Possible duplicate of TFS 2015 build task for VS 2017 - Richard
That question is phrased with a bad title that hides the real question. It didn't come up in a search. Your answer is a link and run, which is bad. The number of views is low, and it's "newer" than this one in a way that won't matter a day from now, let alone next year. So sure, it's a "duplicate" in the worst possible sense. - rianjs
I disagree with the suggestion of a duplicate. I found this SO q&a as top result for my search for: "how to install msbuild 2017 on build server" - and the top answer addresses my need precisely. Having read the suggested duplicate, that answer is a full level more detailed about issues moving from one version to another - that SO post does not answer the question I searched for. - qxotk
Related post - Getting msbuild.exe without installing Visual Studio - RBT

1 Answers

322
votes

The Visual Studio Build tools are a different download than the IDE. They appear to be a pretty small subset, and they're called Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019 (download).

You can use the GUI to do the installation, or you can script the installation of msbuild:

vs_buildtools.exe --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.MSBuildTools --quiet

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.MSBuildTools is a "wrapper" ID for the three subcomponents you need:

  • Microsoft.Component.MSBuild
  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreBuildTools
  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler

You can find documentation about the other available CLI switches here.

The build tools installation is much quicker than the full IDE. In my test, it took 5-10 seconds. With --quiet there is no progress indicator other than a brief cursor change. If the installation was successful, you should be able to see the build tools in %programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin.

If you don't see them there, try running without --quiet to see any error messages that may occur during installation.