Error in download_test_data.vcxproj when compiling with Visual Studio 2019 16.7.7 Professional msbuild on Windows 10 2004 Professional

[Andreas-Schniertshauer]

I get the following error in the CustomBuild step of test\download_test_data.vcxproj when compiling with Visual Studio 2019 16.7.7 Professional msbuild on Windows 10 2004 Professional:

CustomBuild:
Downloading test data from https://github.com/nlohmann/json_test_data (v3.0.0)
Der Befehl "test" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder
konnte nicht gefunden werden.
Building Custom Rule ./test/CMakeLists.txt

The Command "test" is not found, because it does not exist on Windows.
"test -d json_test_data" is found in the CustomBuild step of the test\download_test_data.vcxproj project.

The problem is located in download_test_data.cmake "COMMAND test -d json_test_data || ...",
here "COMMAND if not exist json_test_data ..." should be used on Windows.

Please describe the steps to reproduce the issue.

1. Download json-3.9.1.zip and unzip
2. Open a Developer command Prompt v16.7.7
3. cd json-3.9.1
4. Create directory build and cd build
5. cmake ..\ -D JSON_Install:BOOL=OFF -D JSON_ImplicitConversions:BOOL=OFF -D JSON_BuildTests:BOOL=ON
6. msbuild nlohmann_json.sln
7. msbuild nlohmann_json.sln

What is the expected behavior?

No error.

And what is the actual behavior instead?

Step 6:
CustomBuild:
Downloading test data from https://github.com/nlohmann/json_test_data (v3.0.0)
Der Befehl "test" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder
konnte nicht gefunden werden.
Building Custom Rule ./test/CMakeLists.txt

Step 7:
CustomBuild:
Downloading test data from https://github.com/nlohmann/json_test_data (v3.0.0)
Der Befehl "test" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder
konnte nicht gefunden werden.
fatal: destination path 'json_test_data' already exists and is not an empty directory.
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(234,5): error MSB6006: "cmd.exe" wurde mit dem Code 128 beendet. [build\test\download_test_data.vcxproj]

Which compiler and operating system are you using?

• Compiler: Visual Studio 2019 16.7.7 Professional
• Operating system: Windows 10 2004 Pro German

Which version of the library did you use?

• [x ] latest release version 3.9.1

If you experience a compilation error: can you compile and run the unit tests?

• yes
• no - please copy/paste the error message below

ctest --output-on-failure

did not work, there is mising a -C in the command

ctest -C Release --output-on-failure

would do the job, but an error is reported about json_test_data.
After deleting the json_test_data folder and executing

ctest -C Release --output-on-failure

it works.
Is also works without deleting the folder when "if exist" is used instead of "test" as reported on top of this post.

Total Test time (real) = 381.65 sec

The following tests FAILED:
51 - cmake_import_configure (Failed)
52 - cmake_import_build (Not Run)
53 - cmake_import_minver_configure (Failed)
54 - cmake_import_minver_build (Not Run)
57 - cmake_fetch_content_configure (Failed)
58 - cmake_fetch_content_build (Not Run)
Errors while running CTest

[nlohmann]

Similar to #2593, this issue does not occur on GitHub Actions or AppVeyor. Maybe you need to use a different shell? I'm not using Windows myself, so I don't know what the CI providers do differently.

[Andreas-Schniertshauer]

I found it why there are differences see: #2593 (comment)

[Andreas-Schniertshauer]

It can be solved see #2593 (comment)

[nlohmann]

Same fix: #2593 (comment)