Solution build configurations ignored when using "dotnet build" and "dotnet run"

[PJB3005]

Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask.

In our project's solution file we have more than the usual Debug & Release configurations, we also have "Tools" and "DebugOpt". These configurations are however exclusive to the main code of our project (so not used for any analyzers we also have in-tree). This means the solution config looks like this. Most things use "Tools" but some configurations are set to "Release":

This works fine, however I just discovered that dotnet run and dotnet build completely ignore this when compiling a specific project. If you target a specific project, it will use the configuration of the targeted project for all dependencies, rather than the one set in the solution.

This causes loud compilation failures in our project on default config, but I am more concerned in general about the implications of this. It means that every time somebody uses dotnet build in our project, it's effectively using invalid configuration on many projects and just happening to not explode. This seems absurd to me.

is there anything I can specify here so that dotnet run is more in line with what my IDE does?

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

I can think of the following approaches, ordered by descending preference:

1. Add SetConfiguration metadata to the ProjectReference item, to choose a configuration that is supported by the referenced project. Common MSBuild project items
2. Run MSBuild on the solution rather than on an individual project, but specify the project as part of the target. Build specific targets in solutions by using MSBuild.exe
3. Add a custom target that runs after AssignProjectConfiguration and replaces unsupported configurations with supported ones. This might be incompatible with MSBuild static graph.
4. Set properties to fake a solution build and cause AssignProjectConfiguration itself to choose the same configurations as in the solution. I'm not sure this would work, because a real solution build also involves metaprojects that you wouldn't get this way.

[PJB3005]

I won't get around to trying it, but SetConfiguration definitely feels like the best solution there with our project configuration. Thanks.

[rainersigwald]

The core problem here is that solution configurations are used only when building in the context of a solution, while dotnet run operates on a project. I don't think there's a way to change that currently. I'm going to move this to SDK. I would move this to dotnet/sdk except discussions aren't enabled there. cc @baronfel

For dotnet build you should be able to use @KalleOlaviNiemitalo's suggestion 2 from #10336 (comment) to build the project in the solution context.