How to change multiple project settings at once?

[a_leonard]

I have a solution with a lot of projects and I want to change a compiler setting in all of them. Is there an easy way to do it in one shot or do I have to do them one at a time?

[Steven_L_Intel1]

You'll have to do it one at a time.

You didn't see me write this, but if you look at the .vfproj file, you'll see that they are XML text files. So if you saved a copy of one project, made the edit, and looked to see what changed, you MIGHT be able to use a multi-file replace program, should you have one handy, to make the same edit in the others. How feasible this is depends on exactly what you want to change.

[a_leonard]

Actually, I found if I select all the projects in the Solution Explorer window, then I can right-click and select Properties. It applies the changes to all of them.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Really? I never knew that. Thanks for the info!

[Steve_Nuchia]

It is a little hard to discover but the "property sheet" files, .vsprops extentions, are a tremendous help in centralizing the management of build settings for native C++ projects. The .NET languages ignore them and, in VS2005, so do the IVF projects.

It would be nice if we could get support for that without delaying the VS2008 integration availability. And I'd like a pony while you're at it :-)

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Our C++ compiler supports the property sheets, but not Fortran. I'm not sure how much added work it would be for Fortran to support it. I will submit a feature request for you.

[Brian_Francis]

Quoting - Steve Lionel (Intel)

Our C++ compiler supports the property sheets, but not Fortran. I'm not sure how much added work it would be for Fortran to support it. I will submit a feature request for you.

Hi Steve,

Can you give us an ETA on a .vfprops enhancement? We use .vsprops for all of our mixed C++/Fortran projects and it is really painful to have to go to 40 or so Fortran projects and repeatedly apply the same edit that we can do with a single edit for our C++ projects. This problem has really come to a head due to our latest efforts to migrate our software to 64-bit. Each time we learn something new, we end up going back and changing project settings -- about as efficient as a bubble sort :(.

Thanks,

Brian.

[Les_Neilson]

Quoting - bfrancis

This problem has really come to a head due to our latest efforts to migrate our software to 64-bit. Each time we learn something new, we end up going back and changing project settings -- about as efficient as a bubble sort :(.

I know the feeling. Fortunately I am able to use Perl on my system. I have several scripts which I use to traverse our source tree and make changes to project files. For example when we upgraded from VS2005 to VS2008 all that changed in the solution file was the version number and VS number. The script was much quicker to write and run than editing the sln files by hand, of course I also had to write other scripts to modify the vcproj and csproj files, but once one script was written it was simple to copy it and change the appropriate lines.

Les