using nant for automated build with VS2008 and .Net 3.5 without msbuild-task

Question

I have tried to use NAnt 0.92 to build VS2008 solution faster. I'm using solution-task but it doesn't work. In the internet say that must use msbuild-task instead of solution-task. But build by msbuild-task is not different with build in VS2008. Is there any other way?

Answer 1

If your main goal is to build solutions faster, your main target should not be to avoid MSBuild. Here is some general advice on how to speed up your builds:

• Use a dedicated build server. A machine which has no other responsibility than building your solutions where resources don't have to be shared with other tasks is very likely to speed up your builds.
• You got an issue with performance? Follow Jeff Atwood's advice and throw hardware on it.
• Use MSBuild instead of Visual Studio for your builds. This way you avoid any overhead resource consumption by the GUI. Additionally you could speed up your builds by building in parallel with MSBuild's /m switch. Find more information on this on Scott Hanselman's blog.