title: Top-level .mak file for Visual Studio?
body: <p>I've inherited a body of Visual C++ source that consists of about a dozen sub-projects.  One of these is an empty "MakeAll" project that depends on all the others, so I can build the entire project by setting the MakeAll project active and selecting "Build All."</p>
  
  <p>I'd like to automate this process, and coming from a linux environment, my instinct was to generate a Makefile and build from the command line.  The IDE will generate <code>.mak</code> files for each of the sub-projects, but not for the top-level MakeAll.  (I'm assuming this is because it contains nothing but dependencies.)</p>
  
  <p>The linux answer would be a Makefile that simply descends into each of the sub-projects and executes <code>make</code> in each one.  But a quick look at the <code>.mak</code> files showed that each wants to be told which of several configurations to use -- and apparently some use Debug, some use Release, and some use configurations concocted by a previous developer.</p>
  
  <p>What's the accepted way to build a set of projects like this from the command line?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>