Cannot build solution: Error MSB4126: The specified solution configuration"Release|BWS" is invalid

[alexfoxgill]

Description

When trying to build FAKE on Windows, running build.cmd from the command line, an error occurs:

...
Finished Target: SetAssemblyInfo
Starting Target: BuildSolution (==> SetAssemblyInfo)
Building project: ./FAKE.sln
  C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe  ./FAKE.sln /t:Build /m
   /p:RestorePackages="False" /p:Configuration="Release" /logger:Fake.MsBuildLog
ger+ErrorLogger,"C:\www\FAKE\packages\build\FAKE\tools\FakeLib.dll"
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe  ./FAKE.sln /t:Build /m
 /p:RestorePackages="False" /p:Configuration="Release" /logger:Fake.MsBuildLogge
r+ErrorLogger,"C:\www\FAKE\packages\build\FAKE\tools\FakeLib.dll"
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25123.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Build started 21/07/2016 09:45:14.
     1>Project "C:\www\FAKE\FAKE.sln" on node 1 (Build target(s)).
     1>C:\www\FAKE\FAKE.sln.metaproj : error MSB4126: The specified solution co
       nfiguration "Release|BWS" is invalid. Please specify a valid solution co
       nfiguration using the Configuration and Platform properties (e.g. MSBuil
       d.exe Solution.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform="Any CPU") or leav
       e those properties blank to use the default solution configuration. [C:\
       www\FAKE\FAKE.sln]
     1>Done Building Project "C:\www\FAKE\FAKE.sln" (Build target(s)) -- FAILED
       .

Repro steps

1. Clone FAKE
2. Run build.cmd

Related information

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Branch: master

[alexfoxgill]

It seems this occurs when a "Platform" system variable is defined. I don't know why it is on my machine but I'd prefer not to mess around with it, just in case:

Is there a sensible default which could be passed to the Platform parameter of MSBuild?

[inosik]

This is actually a MSBuild "feature". You can set the properties for your project with environment variables.

I think the easiest way to solve this, would be to remove the Platform environment variable for the FAKE.exe process, for example in build.cmd:

SET Platform=
path\to\FAKE.exe ...

Then MSBuild should take the default value.

There is a similar issue on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2507856/why-is-my-platform-environment-variable-defined-as-bnb

Do you have an HP computer?

[alexfoxgill]

Yep, HP

[dsyme]

Fixed by #1388

What?

[matthid]

@DuongTrongNguyen what happened? Did we regress this?

This is not a solution for error MSB4126: The specified solution configuration "Release|ARM" is invalid.

[matthid]

The solution is to unset the "Platform" environment variable. As we no longer use the build.cmd script (where this has been fixed) this might have regressed

Where are steps?