Visual Basic Compiler Options Listed by Category

Article
07/10/2012

The Visual Basic command-line compiler is provided as an alternative to compiling programs from within the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE). The following is a list of the Visual Basic command-line compiler options sorted by functional category.

Compiler Output

Option	Purpose
/nologo	Suppresses compiler banner information.
/utf8output	Displays compiler output using UTF-8 encoding.
/verbose	Outputs extra information during compilation.

Optimization

Option	Purpose
/filealign	Specifies where to align the sections of the output file.
/optimize	Enables/disables optimizations.

Output Files

Option	Purpose
/doc	Process documentation comments to an XML file.
/netcf	Sets the compiler to target the .NET Compact Framework.
/out	Specifies an output file.
/target	Specifies the format of the output.

.NET Assemblies

Option	Purpose
/addmodule	Causes the compiler to make all type information from the specified file(s) available to the project you are currently compiling.
/delaysign	Specifies whether the assembly will be fully or partially signed.
/imports	Imports a namespace from a specified assembly.
/keycontainer	Specifies a key container name for a key pair to give an assembly a strong name.
/keyfile	Specifies a file containing a key or key pair to give an assembly a strong name.
/libpath	Specifies the location of assemblies referenced by the /reference option.
/reference	Imports metadata from an assembly.
/moduleassemblyname	Specifies the name of the assembly that a module will be a part of.

Debugging/Error Checking

Option	Purpose
/bugreport	Creates a file that contains information that makes it easy to report a bug.
/debug	Produces debugging information.
/nowarn	Suppresses the compiler's ability to generate warnings.
/quiet	Prevents the compiler from displaying code for syntax-related errors and warnings.
/removeintchecks	Disables integer overflow checking.
/warnaserror	Promotes warnings to errors.

Help

Option	Purpose
/?	Displays the compiler options. This command is the same as specifying the /help option. No compilation occurs.
/help	Displays the compiler options. This command is the same as specifying the /? option. No compilation occurs.

Language

Option	Purpose
/langversion	Specifies that the compiler should accept only syntax that is included in the specified version of Visual Basic.
/optionexplicit	Enforces explicit declaration of variables.
/optionstrict	Enforces strict type semantics.
/optioncompare	Specifies whether string comparisons should be binary or use locale-specific text semantics.
/optioninfer	Enables the use of local type inference in variable declarations.

Preprocessor

Option	Purpose
/define	Defines symbols for conditional compilation.

Resources

Option	Purpose
/linkresource	Creates a link to a managed resource.
/resource	Embeds a managed resource in an assembly.
/win32icon	Inserts an .ico file into the output file.
/win32resource	Inserts a Win32 resource into the output file.

Miscellaneous

Option	Purpose
@ (Specify Response File)	Specifies a response file.
/baseaddress	Specifies the base address of a DLL.
/codepage	Specifies the code page to use for all source code files in the compilation.
/errorreport	Specifies how the Visual Basic compiler should report internal compiler errors.
/highentropyva	Tells the Windows kernel whether a particular executable supports high entropy Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).
/main	Specifies the class that contains the SubMain procedure to use at startup.
/noconfig	Do not compile with Vbc.rsp
/nostdlib	Causes the compiler not to reference the standard libraries.
/nowin32manifest	Instructs the compiler not to embed any application manifest into the executable file.
/platform	Specifies the processor platform the compiler targets for the output file.
/recurse	Searches subdirectories for source files to compile.
/rootnamespace	Specifies a namespace for all type declarations.
/sdkpath	Specifies the location of Mscorlib.dll and Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll.
/vbruntime	Specifies that the compiler should compile without a reference to the Visual Basic Runtime Library, or with a reference to a specific runtime library.
/win32manifest	Identifies a user-defined Win32 application manifest file to be embedded into a project's portable executable (PE) file.

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