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# Visual Studio's external build projects
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Visual Studio supports developing projects that have an external build
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system. If you wish to use this integration method, here is how you
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set it up. This documentation describes Visual Studio 2019. Other
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versions have not been tested, but they should work roughly in the
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same way.
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## Creating and compiling
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Check out your entire project in some directory. Then open Visual
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Studio and select `File -> New -> Project` and from the list of
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project types select `Makefile project`. Click `Next`.
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Type your project's name In the `Project name` entry box. In this
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example we're going to use `testproj`. Next select the `Location`
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entry and browse to the root of your project sources. Make sure that
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the checkbox `Place solution and project in the same directory` is
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checked. Click `Create`.
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The next dialog page defines build commands, which you should set up
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as follows:
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| entry | value |
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| ----- | ----- |
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|build | `meson compile -C $(Configuration)` |
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|clean | `meson compile -C $(Configuration) --clean` |
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|rebuild| `meson compile -C $(Configuration) --clean && meson compile -C $(Configuration)` |
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|Output | `$(Configuration)\name_of_your_executable.exe` |
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Then click `Finish`.
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Visual Studio has created a subdirectory in your source root. It is
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named after the project name. In this case it would be `testproj`. Now
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you need to set up Meson for building both Debug and Release versions
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in this directory. Open a VS dev tool terminal, go to the source root
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and issue the following commands.
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```
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meson testproj\Debug
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meson testproj\Release --buildtype=debugoptimized
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```
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Now you should have a working VS solution that compiles and runs both
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in Debug and Release modes.
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## Adding sources to the project
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This project is not very useful on its own, because it does not list
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any source files. VS does not seem to support adding entire source
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trees at once, so you have to add sources to the solution manually.
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In the main view go to `Solution Explorer`, right click on the project
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you just created and select `Add -> Existing Item`, browse to your
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source tree and select all files you want to have in this project. Now
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you can use the editor and debugger as in a normal VS project.
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