Determine If Solution Compiles using MSBuild and PSake - powershell

Question

I have put together a PSake (v2.0) build script, and the script is setting the $psake.build_success property as true even thought the call to MSBuild fails. Can anyone advise me on how to alter the script so that the $psake.build_success property will correctly return false when the MSBuild call fails?
My PSake build script is as follows:
properties {
$solutionFile = 'SOLUTION_FILE'
$buildSuccessfulMessage = 'Solution Successfully Built!'
$buildFailureMessage = 'Solution Failed to Build!'
$cleanMessage = 'Executed Clean!'
}
task default -depends BuildSolution
task BuildSolution
{
msbuild $solutionFile /t:Clean,Build
if ($psake.build_success)
{
$buildSuccessfulMessage
}
else
{
$buildFailureMessage
}
}

Answer 1

Is PowerShell's native $lastExitCode (i.e., WIn32 ExitCode) any use in the context? I'd be guessing that the built in one is only relevant when you're invoking a psake-related cmdlet.
i.e., replace the check with
if($lastexitcode -eq 0) {
Disclaimer: Only podcast level experience with psake :D

Answer 2

The issue seems to be that the call to MSBuild operation actually completes successfully, whilst the build operation it initiates fails. The way I was able to get around this was to pipe the output of the MSBuild call to a text file, and then parse the file for the string "Build Failed". If it contained the string, obviously the build failed.
My PSake build script is as follows:
properties {
$solutionFile = 'SOLUTION_FILE'
$buildSuccessfulMessage = 'Solution Successfully Built!'
$buildFailureMessage = 'Solution Failed to Build!'
$cleanMessage = 'Executed Clean!'
}
task default -depends Build
task Build -depends Clean {
msbuild $solutionFile /t:Build /p:Configuration=Release >"MSBuildOutput.txt"
}
task Clean {
msbuild $solutionFile /t:Clean
}
and in my calling script:
function Check-BuildSuccess()
{
return (! (Find-StringInTextFile -filePath .\MSBuildOutput.txt -searchTerm "Build Failed"))
}
function Is-StringInTextFile
(
[string]$filePath = $(Throw "File Path Required!"),
[string]$searchTerm = $(Throw "Search Term Required!")
)
{
$fileContent = Get-Content $filePath
return ($fileContent -match $searchTerm)
}

Answer 3

There is the psake Exec command that you can wrap msbuild with and a powershell error is thrown.
Exec {
msbuild $solutionFile "/p:Configuration=$buildConfiguration;Platform=$buildPlatform;OutDir=$tempOutputDirectory"
}

Answer 4

Neither $LastExitCode or $_ worked for me. This did however:
$buildArgs = "MySolution.sln", "/t:Build", "/p:Configuration=Debug"
$procExitCode = 0
$process = Start-Process -FilePath "msbuild" -ArgumentList $buildArgs -NoNewWindow -PassThru
Wait-Process -InputObject $process
$procExitCode = $process.ExitCode
#aha! msbuild sets the process exit code but powershell doesn't notice
if ($procExitCode -ne 0)
{
throw "msbuild failed with exit code $procExitCode."
}
P.S. If you use this in production I recommend adding -timeout handling to Wait-Process