Choice for build tool: MSBuild, NANT or something else?

We wrote FlubuCore (rewrite of Flubu). It’s an open source C# library for building projects and executing deployment scripts using C# code.

Main advantages of flubu that I see are:

• .Net Core support.
• Easy to learn and to use because you write build script entirely in C#.
• Fluent interface and intelisense.
• Quite a lot of built in tasks (compile, running tests, managing iis, creating deploy package, publishing nuget packages, executing powershell scripts…)
• Write your own custom c# code in script and execute it..
• Run any external program or command in script with RunProgramTask.
• Reference any .net library or c# source code file in buildscript. Now also available option to reference nuget package in build script.
• Write tests, debug your build script..
• Use flubu tasks in any other .net application.
• Web api is available for flubu. Useful for automated deployments remotely.
• Write your own flubu tasks and extend flubu fluent interface with them.

You can find flubu on nuget:

Search for FlubuCore.Runner if u need it for .net project

Search for dotnet-flubu if u need it for.net core project

Example of how flubu is used in .net:

protected override void ConfigureBuildProperties(IBuildPropertiesContext context) {
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.NUnitConsolePath,
  @ "packages\NUnit.ConsoleRunner.3.6.0\tools\nunit3-console.exe");
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.ProductId, "FlubuExample");
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.ProductName, "FlubuExample");
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.SolutionFileName, "FlubuExample.sln");
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.BuildConfiguration, "Release");
}

protected override void ConfigureTargets(ITaskContext session) {
 var loadSolution = session.CreateTarget("load.solution")
  .SetAsHidden()
  .AddTask(x => x.LoadSolutionTask());

 var updateVersion = session.CreateTarget("update.version")
  .DependsOn(loadSolution)
  .SetAsHidden()
  .Do(TargetFetchBuildVersion);

 session.CreateTarget("generate.commonassinfo")
  .SetDescription("Generates common assembly info")
  .DependsOn(updateVersion)
  .TaskExtensions().GenerateCommonAssemblyInfo()

 var compile = session.CreateTarget("compile")
  .SetDescription("Compiles the solution.")
  .AddTask(x => x.CompileSolutionTask())
  .DependsOn("generate.commonassinfo");

 var unitTest = session.CreateTarget("unit.tests")
  .SetDescription("Runs unit tests")
  .DependsOn(loadSolution)
  .AddTask(x => x.NUnitTaskForNunitV3("FlubuExample.Tests"));

 session.CreateTarget("abc").AddTask(x => x.RunProgramTask(@ "packages\LibZ.Tool\1.2.0\tools\libz.exe"));

 session.CreateTarget("Rebuild")
  .SetDescription("Rebuilds the solution.")
  .SetAsDefault()
  .DependsOn(compile, unitTest);
}

//// Some custom code
public static void TargetFetchBuildVersion(ITaskContext context) {
 var version = context.Tasks().FetchBuildVersionFromFileTask().Execute(context);

 int svnRevisionNumber = 0; //in real scenario you would fetch revision number from subversion.
 int buildNumber = 0; // in real scenario you would fetch build version from build server.
 version = new Version(version.Major, version.Minor, buildNumber, svnRevisionNumber);
 context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.BuildVersion, version);
}

Example of how flubu is used in .net core

public class MyBuildScript : DefaultBuildScript
{
    protected override void ConfigureBuildProperties(IBuildPropertiesContext context)
    {
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.CompanyName, "Flubu");
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.CompanyCopyright, "Copyright (C) 2010-2016 Flubu");
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.ProductId, "FlubuExample");
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.ProductName, "FlubuExample");
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.SolutionFileName, "FlubuExample.sln");
        context.Properties.Set(BuildProps.BuildConfiguration, "Release");
    }

    protected override void ConfigureTargets(ITaskContext context)
    {
        var buildVersion = context.CreateTarget("buildVersion")
            .SetAsHidden()
            .SetDescription("Fetches flubu version from FlubuExample.ProjectVersion.txt file.")
            .AddTask(x => x.FetchBuildVersionFromFileTask());

        var compile = context
            .CreateTarget("compile")
            .SetDescription("Compiles the VS solution and sets version to FlubuExample.csproj")
            .AddCoreTask(x => x.UpdateNetCoreVersionTask("FlubuExample/FlubuExample.csproj"))
            .AddCoreTask(x => x.Restore())
            .AddCoreTask(x => x.Build())
            .DependsOn(buildVersion);

        var package = context
            .CreateTarget("Package")
            .CoreTaskExtensions()
            .DotnetPublish("FlubuExample")
            .CreateZipPackageFromProjects("FlubuExample", "netstandard2.0", "FlubuExample")
            .BackToTarget();

    //// Can be used instead of CreateZipPackageFromProject. See MVC_NET4.61 project for full example of PackageTask
    //// context.CreateTarget("Package2").AddTask(x =>   
             x.PackageTask("FlubuExample"));

         var test = context.CreateTarget("test")
            .AddCoreTaskAsync(x => x.Test().Project("FlubuExample.Tests"))
            .AddCoreTaskAsync(x => x.Test().Project("FlubuExample.Tests2"));   

         context.CreateTarget("Rebuild")
             .SetAsDefault()                 
             .DependsOn(compile, test, package);
}

}

Detailed presentation and documentation can be found here:
https://github.com/flubu-core/flubu.core

You can find full examples here:
https://github.com/flubu-core/examples