Find out the “Bit”ness of the current OS in MSBuild

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3505285

Question

I have a build script that needs to hard code a path to an executable. The path is:

  • C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\SmartDevices\SDK\SDKTools\cabwiz.exe

This has worked fine, but now I am running on a 64 bit OS (but my coworker and build server are on 32 bit still).

I need the path to be this for me:

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\SmartDevices\SDK\SDKTools\cabwiz.exe

But use the normal path for the others.

Here is how I set it up:

<PropertyGroup>
    <CabWiz>"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\SmartDevices\SDK\SDKTools\cabwiz.exe"</CabWiz>
</PropertyGroup>

Is there a condition I can put on that so that I can set it if the OS (not the current build configuration) is 64 bit?

Was it helpful?

Solution

There is a registry key that will tell you the bit-edness of the current OS. Here are the properties I use in my MSBuild files:

<PropertyGroup>
        <MachineProcessorArchitecture>$(registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment@PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE)</MachineProcessorArchitecture>
        <Is32Bit>False</Is32Bit>
        <Is32Bit Condition="'$(MachineProcessorArchitecture)' == 'x86'">True</Is32Bit>
        <Is64Bit>False</Is64Bit>
        <Is64Bit Condition="'$(MachineProcessorArchitecture)' == 'AMD64'">True</Is64Bit>
</PropertyGroup>

OTHER TIPS

On a 64-bit OS, the following variables are defined:

ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)

So just test for ProgramFiles(x86) and if it's empty, use ProgramFiles.

You're using the bitness to try and guess the correct Program Files folder, but there's no guarantee that it's on the C drive, or even called "Program Files". You would be better using the $(MSBuildProgramFiles32) property (in MSBuild 4.0).

If you're always running the 32-bit version of MSBuild, regardless of the platform, then it's easy: just substitute '$(ProgramFiles)' for 'C:\Program Files'. Whether on a 32-bit or 64-bit OS, '$(ProgramFiles)' should expand to the correct folder location (the location of all 32-bit programs).

If you're running the 64-bit version of MSBuild on 64-bit platforms (which is unlikely), then it gets a bit trickier. The '%ProgramFiles(x86)%' environment variable would seem to be what you want, but good luck dealing with those parentheses. Easier would probably be to use the '%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%' environment variable in a condition.

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