build - Target specific version of .NET with MSBuild

Question

I have a solution that is being referenced by a MSBuild project. In the solution, I am referencing several projects that are targeting .NET 4.0. How can I tell MSBuild to ignore the project's configuration and just target .NET 3.5?

Answer 1

A command similar to the following should work

msbuild YourSolution.sln /tv:3.5 /p:TargetFrameworkVersion=v3.5

or

msbuild YourSolution.sln /p:TargetFrameworkVersion=v3.5

/tv (or /toolsversion) Indicates which version of the MSBuild tools you want to use, and the property TargetFrameworkVersion indicates the target framework. In your case just specifying that property should be fine, but if you want to use the 3.5 MSBuild toolset you can sepcify it with /tv as I did in the first command.