Inside the Microsoft® Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build

Default/Initial Targets

When you create an MSBuild file, you will typically create it such that a target, or a set of targets, will be executed most of the time. In this scenario, these targets can be specified as default targets. These targets will be executed if a target is not specifically chosen to be executed. Without the declaration of a default target, the first defined target in the logical project file, after all imports have been resolved, is treated as the default target. A logical project file is the project file with all Import statements processed. Using default target(s) is how Visual Studio builds your managed project. If you take a look at Visual Studio-generated project files, you will notice that the Build target is specified ...