What does the BuildMacro element do in Visual studio properties and projects?

Question

I have seen this several times:

  <PropertyGroup Label="UserMacros">
    <SomePropertyName>trunk</SomePropertyName>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <BuildMacro Include="SomePropertyName">
      <Value>$(SomePropertyName)</Value>
    </BuildMacro>
  </ItemGroup>

How is this different from just defining the property? To my surprise, there are only three results for this word on the MSDN, and only one is in English. The one result didn't really help me understand the construct above.

Answer 1

The BuildMacro is used to create custom user macros in property sheet. It could make you manage them in visual studio.

The steps:

1. Open View > Other Windows > Property Manager
2. Open property page under Configuration|Platform folder

Related links:

• User-defined macros

• Share or reuse Visual Studio project settings

• What does BuildMacro actually do