Solution filter file support

[ViktorHofer]

It would be great if slngen would support solution filter file as an output as well (slnfgen 😁). That would help with only having a single repo wide solution file and per leaf solution filter files that reference the solution file.

[jeffkl]

I had started working on this a while back: https://github.com/microsoft/slngen/blob/master/src/Microsoft.VisualStudio.SlnGen/SlnfFile.cs

Its a little complicated because how solution filters work. Essentially you'd need a single SLN file at the root of the repo that contains every project and an SLNF file in the current directory that contains just the projects you care about. Then you'd have to check in the SLN file so that the solution GUID doesn't change. As you generate solution filters, you'd get the caching from VS (as long as you don't delete the .vs folder from the root of your repo). And if the solution filter contained a project that wasn't in the SLN file, that would need to be constantly updated.

In the end I decided it didn't really make sense and the benefits seemed very small. Generating solution files on the fly "just works" without the complications. What are your thoughts?

[ViktorHofer]

Generating solution files on the fly "just works" without the complications. What are your thoughts?

We probably want to continue checking in our sln/slnf files in the project leafs as the Developer Command Prompt requirement and cross-plat limitation is problematic. Continue checking the slns in isn't much of a problem but in an ideal world we would replace them with slnfs for the sake of sanity (the dark path - using slns and seeing all these GUIDs - disturbs my inner peace 😁).