Error message when defining a property with no value on the command line is confusing

[rainersigwald]

For example:

o:\msbuild>msbuild /p:blah build.proj /nologo
MSBUILD : error MSB1006: Property is not valid.
Switch: blah

What does Switch: mean? It would be more accurate to say something like "No value was given for property 'blah' defined on the command line."

[alexsorokoletov]

This issue is a little bit incomplete. I came to this issue from here: microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks#4558.
Similar reports https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-5552 and https://teamcity-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206982415-Error-when-inserting-comma-in-build-configuration-name-MSBuild-

Here is my output:

➜  msbuild-tests dotnet new classlib
The template "Class library" was created successfully.

Processing post-creation actions...
Running 'dotnet restore' on /Users/username/work/dt/msbuild-tests/msbuild-tests.csproj...
  Restoring packages for /Users/username/work/dt/msbuild-tests/msbuild-tests.csproj...
  Generating MSBuild file /Users/username/work/dt/msbuild-tests/obj/msbuild-tests.csproj.nuget.g.props.
  Generating MSBuild file /Users/username/work/dt/msbuild-tests/obj/msbuild-tests.csproj.nuget.g.targets.
  Restore completed in 186.36 ms for /Users/username/work/dt/msbuild-tests/msbuild-tests.csproj.


Restore succeeded.

➜  msbuild-tests msbuild /t:Clean /p:PropertyName=Long, Value
...
MSBUILD : error MSB1005: Specify a property and its value.
Switch: /p:PropertyName=Long,

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"
➜  msbuild-tests msbuild /t:Clean /p:PropertyName="Long, Value"
...
MSBUILD : error MSB1006: Property is not valid.
Switch:  Value

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"
➜  msbuild-tests msbuild /t:Clean "/p:PropertyName=Long, Value"
...
MSBUILD : error MSB1006: Property is not valid.
Switch:  Value

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"
➜  msbuild-tests msbuild /t:Clean '/p:PropertyName=Long, Value'
...
MSBUILD : error MSB1006: Property is not valid.
Switch:  Value

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"
➜  msbuild-tests msbuild /t:Clean '/p:PropertyName="Long, Value"'
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 15.4.0.0 (master/f296e67b Thu Sep 21 19:38:16 EDT 2017) for Mono
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Build started 10/21/2017 10:08:14 AM.

I also have same issue with Xamarin.iOS (same as vsts-tasks team had).

My question is about single quote escaping - is that a universal mechanism that works across all platforms MSBuild supports (Windows, OS X, Unix)? If so, I can go ahead and apply that to the build system we use (F# Fake).

Thank you.
P.S. It is so great to have MSBuild repo on github, you can't believe! :) 👍

[pronobeshm]

MSB1005: Specify a property and its value.

Running as SYSTEM
[EnvInject] - Loading node environment variables.
Building in workspace C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\First Windows Project
No credentials specified

git.exe rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree # timeout=10
Fetching changes from the remote Git repository
git.exe config remote.origin.url https://github.com/pronobeshm/PdftoWord.git # timeout=10
Fetching upstream changes from https://github.com/pronobeshm/PdftoWord.git
git.exe --version # timeout=10
git.exe fetch --tags --force --progress -- https://github.com/pronobeshm/PdftoWord.git +refs/heads/:refs/remotes/origin/ # timeout=10
git.exe rev-parse "refs/remotes/origin/master^{commit}" # timeout=10
git.exe rev-parse "refs/remotes/origin/origin/master^{commit}" # timeout=10
Checking out Revision b41ae8f43b6760d2da87091f907d2640ff42db6b (refs/remotes/origin/master)
git.exe config core.sparsecheckout # timeout=10
git.exe checkout -f b41ae8f43b6760d2da87091f907d2640ff42db6b # timeout=10
Commit message: "This is my First Commit to the Github"
git.exe rev-list --no-walk b41ae8f43b6760d2da87091f907d2640ff42db6b # timeout=10
New run name is '#14'
Path To MSBuild.exe: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\msbuild.exe
Executing the command cmd.exe /C " chcp 1252 & "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\msbuild.exe" /p:Configuration=Debug; %workspace%/FormatToFormat/FormatToFormat.sln " && exit %%ERRORLEVEL%% from C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\First Windows Project
[First Windows Project] $ cmd.exe /C " chcp 1252 & "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\msbuild.exe" /p:Configuration=Debug; %workspace%/FormatToFormat/FormatToFormat.sln " && exit %%ERRORLEVEL%%
Active code page: 1252
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25420.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

MSBUILD : error MSB1005: Specify a property and its value.
Switch: /p:Configuration=Debug;

For switch syntax, type "MSBuild /help"
Build step 'Build a Visual Studio project or solution using MSBuild' marked build as failure
New run name is '#14'
Finished: FAILURE