I asked this question in the VS Development Community a couple of years ago, but never got an answer - and MS closed it because they didn't understand the question.

I frequently use ctrl-F7 in VS2017 to compile the C++ file currently active in the editor for a quick check after making updates.

However, I can’t figure out which build configuration will be compiled in that case. It’s not (always) the selected startup project; it just seems to be random.

Before SharedItems projects, my recollection (hazy) it the compile was for the project from where you opened the file in Solution Explorer. But that doesn’t make sense if the C++ file is in a SharedItems project.

Does anyone know which build configuration the VS IDE decides which configuration to compile the C++ file when we use ctrl-F7? And is there any way we can control that?

I asked this question in the VS Development Community a couple of years ago, but never got an answer - and MS closed it because they didn't understand the question.

I frequently use ctrl-F7 in VS2017 to compile the C++ file currently active in the editor for a quick check after making updates.

However, I can’t figure out which build configuration will be compiled in that case. It’s not (always) the selected startup project; it just seems to be random.

Before SharedItems projects, my recollection (hazy) it the compile was for the project from where you opened the file in Solution Explorer. But that doesn’t make sense if the C++ file is in a SharedItems project.

Does anyone know which build configuration the VS IDE decides which configuration to compile the C++ file when we use ctrl-F7? And is there any way we can control that?

• visual-studio
• visual-c++
• visual-studio-2017

Share Improve this question Follow asked Mar 24 at 20:24 GlobalEngineerGlobalEngineer 1

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Sorted by: Reset to default 0

Question is a bit unclear, about platform / configuration, but also about file / project.

I've searched a bit for an official source. According to [MS.Learn]: Build and clean projects and solutions in Visual Studio (emphasis is mine)

In Solution Explorer, choose multiple files that can be compiled, open the shortcut menu for one of those files, and then choose Compile, or press Ctrl+F7.

If the files have dependencies, the files will be compiled in dependency order. The compile operation will fail if the files require a precompiled header that isn't available when you compile. The compile operation uses the current active solution configuration.

I prepared an example to illustrate the behavior:

In the VStudio 2017 window above, platform and configuration (x64, Release) are highlighted in red, while current file file and the project it belongs to (dll00.c, dll00) in green. When compiling current file (Ctrl + F7) the information is also displayed in the Output window (at the bottom, highlighted in thinner lines).

But there is a catch: the solution and project(s) platform / configuration tuples must be properly configured (and mapped):

In the above solution properties window, I selected All Platforms / All Configurations just to present all 8 configurations (2 projects / 2 platforms / 2 configurations), but one must be sure that for a specific solution platform / configuration tuple, the corresponding projects tuples are selected.
Check [MS.Learn]: Understand build configurations for more details.

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