Questions around design-time build and Visual Studio integration.

[msedi]

For a long time I have a task that allows to integrate CUDA into C#. For that purpose I created an MSBUILD task that is delivered with a nuget package.

The task creates 3 additional files from a single CUDA file (extension .cu) The 3 files are

• .cs (C# code where the user can edit, partial class that merges with .g.s)
• .g.cs (C# wrapper that is created around the CUDA methods)
• .ptx (EmbeddedResource, the CUDA PTX code which is loaded in the C# wrapper)

The nuget package contains 3 files

• CudaCompilerSchema.xaml
• ipipe.Cuda.Design.props
• ipipe.Cuda.Design.targets

all of them are delivered in build and buildTransitive.

There a are a few problems though

Automatic Rebuild

Current Situation

When using the package in Visual Studio you can simply create a .cu file and the design-time build is creating the three files.
If you change something in the .cu file the results are recreated immediately. If you delete the files either in the solution explorer or physically on the file system they are recreated immediately.
Currently the files are checked-in into source control, but the problem was control over the left-overs. So we decided to not check them in an create them dynamically. We excludedd them from source control. The problem are now left-overs if branches are switched.

New approach

One approach was to move them to the IntermediateOutputPath which worked ok, but now it seems that VS does not really have control over the created files. For example when I delete them in the file system they are not recreated again.

So I tried to add them to the Target as Outputs, but that didn't help. Then I tried to add them to the UpToDateCheckOutput or UpToDdateCheckBuilt which also didn't work.

So currently I switched back to build them again into the normal project directory, then it works again.

EmbeddedResource

The PTX file is marked as EmbeddedResource. The problem is when I put it into the props file without using the task, and I delete the file, it is added as Remove into the project.

When I put the EmbeddedResource in the task, see below it is not visible in the Solution Explorer as EmbeddedResource.

I'm honestyl a bit lost here, because that is so much trial and error. Without having deep knowledge about the project system and how Visual Studio behaves in individual conditions (DesignTime, BuildTime) I'm not really getting further in this topic.

Is there any help? Below you can find the props and targets files to see if I at least make a few things correct.

Props and Targets file

The ipipe.Cuda.Design.targets is this

<Project TreatAsLocalProperty="TaskAssembly">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TaskAssembly>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\tools\ipipe.Cuda.Design.dll</TaskAssembly>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <UsingTask TaskName="ipipe.Cuda.Design.CudaCompileTask" AssemblyFile="$(TaskAssembly)" Architecture="x64" />

  <Target Name="CompileCuda" BeforeTargets="CoreCompile" Condition="@(CudaSourceFile->Count()) != 0">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <DesignTimeBuild Condition="'$(DesignTimeBuild)' == ''">false</DesignTimeBuild>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <CudaCompileTask CudaFiles="@(CudaSourceFile)" ClassNamespace="$(RootNamespace)" DesignTimeBuild="$(DesignTimeBuild)">
      <Output TaskParameter="GeneratedCsFiles"         ItemName="GeneratedCsFiles" />
      <Output TaskParameter="GeneratedCsDesignerFiles" ItemName="GeneratedCsDesignerFiles" />
      <Output TaskParameter="GeneratedPtxFiles"        ItemName="GeneratedPtxFiles" />
    </CudaCompileTask>

    <!-- Ensure generated files are cleaned up on 'Clean' -->
    <ItemGroup>
      <FileWrites Include="@(GeneratedCsFiles)"/>
      <FileWrites Include="@(GeneratedCsDesignerFiles)"/>
      <FileWrites Include="@(GeneratedPtxFiles)"/>
    </ItemGroup> 
  </Target>
  
    <!-- Dynamically embed PTX after they are generated, before resource harvesting -->
  <Target Name="EmbedGeneratedPtx"
          AfterTargets="CompileCuda"
          BeforeTargets="PrepareResources"
          Condition="@(GeneratedPtxFiles->Count()) != 0">
    <ItemGroup>
      <EmbeddedResource Include="@(GeneratedPtxFiles)" Condition="Exists('%(Identity)')">
        <AutoGen>true</AutoGen>
        <Visible>false</Visible> <!-- set to true if you want them shown -->
        <DependentUpon>$([System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension('%(Identity)')).cu</DependentUpon>
      </EmbeddedResource>
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>
</Project>

The ipipe.Cuda.Design.props is here:

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <!-- We create unsafe code parts and it doesn't make sense to force the user to add himself -->
    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectCapability Include="DynamicDependentFile" />
    <ProjectCapability Include="DynamicFileNesting" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PropertyPageSchema Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)CudaCompilerSchema.xml">
      <Context>BrowseObject</Context>
    </PropertyPageSchema>

    <AvailableItemName Include="CudaSourceFile">
      <Targets>CompileCuda</Targets>
    </AvailableItemName>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemDefinitionGroup>
    <CudaSourceFile>
      <GpuArchitecture>compute_52</GpuArchitecture>
      <RelocatableDeviceCode/>
      <ExtensibleWholeProgram/>
      <ClassNamespace/>

      <DeviceDebug/>
      <GenerateLineInfo/>
      <SynchronizeKernel>false</SynchronizeKernel>

      <DeviceCodeOptimization/>
      <PtxasOptions/>
      <MaxRegisterCount/>
      <ftz/>
      <SqrtPrecision/>
      <DivPrecision/>
      <FMad/>
      <UseFastMath/>
      <ExtraDeviceVectorization/>
      <ModifyStackLimit/>

      <DisableWarnings/>
      <Restrict/>
      <DeviceAsDefault/>
      <DeviceInt128/>
      <OptimizationInfo/>
      <VersionIdent/>
      <DisplayErrorNumber/>
      <EmitErrorCode/>
      <SuppressErrorCode/>
      <EmitWarning/>

      <!-- Language -->
      <CppDialect>Cpp17</CppDialect>
      <BuiltInMoveForward/>
      <BuiltInInitializerList/>

      <Generator>MSBuild:CompileDesignTime</Generator>
    </CudaSourceFile>
  </ItemDefinitionGroup>



  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(EnableDefaultItems)' == 'true'">
    <CudaSourceFile Include="**\*.cu"  Exclude="$(DefaultItemExcludes);$(DefaultExcludesInProjectFolder)"/>
    <UpToDateCheckInput Include="@(CudaSourceFile)" />

    <Compile Update="@(CudaSourceFile->'%(RootDir)%(Directory)%(Filename).cs')">
      <DependentUpon>%(Filename).cu</DependentUpon>
      <AutoGen>true</AutoGen>
      <DesignTime>true</DesignTime>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
    </Compile>

    <Compile Update="@(CudaSourceFile->'%(RootDir)%(Directory)%(Filename).g.cs')">
      <DependentUpon>%(Filename).cu</DependentUpon>
      <AutoGen>true</AutoGen>
      <DesignTime>true</DesignTime>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>