visual-studiovisual-studio-2008buildrebuild

Difference between Rebuild and Clean + Build in Visual Studio

What is the difference between just a Rebuild and doing a Clean + Build in Visual Studio 2008? Is Clean + Build different then doing Clean + Rebuild?

Solution

  • Rebuild = Clean + Build (usually)

    Notable details:

    1. For a multi-project solution, "rebuild solution" does a "clean" followed by a "build" for each project (possibly in parallel). Whereas a "clean solution" followed by a "build solution" first cleans all projects (possibly in parallel) and then builds all projects (possibly in parallel). This difference in sequencing of events can become significant when inter-project dependencies come into play.

    2. All three actions correspond to MSBuild targets. So a project can override the Rebuild action to do something completely different.