How to debug msbuild
To do trace in msbuild 1. using message text <Target Name = "MyTarget" > <!-- Some tasks --> <Message Text = "The value of SomeVariable is: $(SomeVariable)" Importance = "High" /> <!-- Some tasks --> </ Target> 2. Let visual studio is able to display verbose message To change the build output verbosity shown in the VS2010 window, open the Options dialog and select the Build and Run settings below the Projects and Solutions node. Unless you explicitly specify a low message importance, your messages should show up at Normalverbosity or higher. Reference [1] Debug msbuild [2] No switch /debug [3] Get message msbuild task