bld clean

This is a tool to clean build output folders for (especially .net) MSBuild projects.

what does it do?

It cleans build output, publishing and intermediate folders.

Yes, you can use dotnet clean or msbuild /t:clean to clean build output from your solutions ...

However, these tools ... well these

• don't clean old build targets (after migrating from net8.0 to net9.0, net8.0 output doesn't get cleaned)
• don't delete default publishing folders (which can be huge)
• don't delete intermediate build folders (obj)
• dotnet clean can have limitations cleaning older framework-style projects

Yes, you can just use git/source control to nuke anything not under source control

• not all projects are under git/source control
• if the build output isn't below the repo, this doesn't work (dotnet\runtime)

what this tool does

• traverse directories looking for .sln, .slnx, .slnf
• process all configurations from the solution files
• in process evaluation of properties for each project and configuration (note: the Microsoft.Build evaluation is not instant)
• automatically resolves default msbuild install (typically .NET SDK) and resolves VSToolsPath for additional target files provided by Visual Studio installations (if available)
• enables you to delete only non-current build output (TagetFramework(s) no longer referenced in proj file)
• validates tfms for .net projects to make sure the correct stuff gets cleaned
• by default doesn't delete, only dumps stats and the command line to delete folders. Nothing gets touched unless you specify --delete
• basic support for linux

Note:

• global.json ... doe to the consistent /s way msbuild, dotnet msbuild, and dotnet build handle global.json ...

bld (dotnet tool) Commands

Command	Description
clean	Evaluate solutions/projects and produce a summary and an OS-specific deletion script (dry-run by default). Use --delete to actually remove files.
stats	Compute and print cleaning statistics only (no deletion and no deletion script). Useful to preview impact.

Examples

Generate a deletion script:

bld clean --root <rootDir> --depth 3 -o clean.cmd

Show only statistics (no script):

bld stats --root <rootDir> --depth 2 --non-current --obj

Run and actually delete (use with care):

bld clean --root <rootDir> --delete [--force]

Options (current defaults & meanings)

Option	Type	Default	Description
--root, -r	string	current working directory	Root directory or a .sln path (can also be specified as the trailing argument).
--depth, -d	int	3	Recursion depth to search for solution files when --root is a directory.
--non-current, --noncurrent, -nc	bool	false	Only consider directories for target frameworks no longer referenced by the project (non-current TFMs).
--obj, -obj	bool	true	Also consider BaseIntermediateOutputPath (obj) for cleaning. Note: CleaningOptions defaults to keep obj handling enabled.
--log, -v, --verbosity	LogLevel	Warning	Log verbosity: Debug, Verbose, Info, Warning, Error.
--output-file, -o	string	clean.cmd	Path to write the deletion script (batch file or shell commands depending on OS).
--vstoolspath, -vs	string	null	Explicit VSToolsPath for MSBuild evaluation; if omitted, the tool may try to resolve it from Visual Studio instances.
--novstoolspath, -novs	bool	false	Do not try to auto-resolve VSToolsPath from environment or vswhere.
--delete	bool	false	Perform deletions instead of a dry-run.

Note: the code includes additional internal flags (parallel/processor modes) and different processors (stats, batch file writer, delete) — the default command wiring uses the batch-file (script) processor for clean and the stats processor for stats.

Notes / Caveats

• MSBuild evaluation can be slow for large repos because the tool invokes MSBuild evaluation per project/configuration pair to compute accurate paths. This is deliberate: better to be correct and slow than fast and wrong.
• MSBuild property evaluation may fail for misconfigured projects — in that case the tool reports the error and skips the problematic project.

Installing as a dotnet tool

Package name and distribution depend on how you publish. Example install (replace <package> with the real package id):

dotnet tool install -g <package>
# then run:
bld clean --help

For a local install, use dotnet tool install --local <package> in a folder with a tool manifest.

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This is a rewrite of a previous tool which used msbuild command line invocation with -getproperty to query properties. This is now in proc using the default msbuild installation.