1 files changed, 100 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/build/docs/visualstudio.rst b/build/docs/visualstudio.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3fbf28e94b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/docs/visualstudio.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+.. _build_visualstudio:
+
+======================
+Visual Studio Projects
+======================
+
+The build system contains alpha support for generating Visual Studio
+project files to aid with development.
+
+To generate Visual Studio project files, you'll need to have a configured tree::
+
+   mach configure
+
+(If you have built recently, your tree is already configured.)
+
+Then, simply generate the Visual Studio build backend::
+
+   mach build-backend -b VisualStudio
+
+If all goes well, the path to the generated Solution (``.sln``) file should be
+printed. You should be able to open that solution with Visual Studio 2010 or
+newer.
+
+Currently, output is hard-coded to the Visual Studio 2010 format. If you open
+the solution in a newer Visual Studio release, you will be prompted to upgrade
+projects. Simply click through the wizard to do that.
+
+Structure of Solution
+=====================
+
+The Visual Studio solution consists of hundreds of projects spanning thousands
+of files. To help with organization, the solution is divided into the following
+trees/folders:
+
+Build Targets
+   This folder contains common build targets. The *full* project is used to
+   perform a full build. The *binaries* project is used to build just binaries.
+   The *visual-studio* project can be built to regenerate the Visual Studio
+   project files.
+
+   Performing the *clean* action on any of these targets will clean the
+   *entire* build output.
+
+Binaries
+   This folder contains common binaries that can be executed from within
+   Visual Studio. If you are building the Firefox desktop application,
+   the *firefox* project will launch firefox.exe. You probably want one of
+   these set to your startup project.
+
+Libraries
+   This folder contains entries for each static library that is produced as
+   part of the build. These roughly correspond to each directory in the tree
+   containing C/C++. e.g. code from ``dom/base`` will be contained in the
+   ``dom_base`` project.
+
+   These projects don't do anything when built. If you build a project here,
+   the *binaries* build target project is built.
+
+Updating Project Files
+======================
+
+As you pull and update the source tree, your Visual Studio files may fall out
+of sync with the build configuration. The tree should still build fine from
+within Visual Studio. But source files may be missing and IntelliSense may not
+have the proper build configuration.
+
+To account for this, you'll want to periodically regenerate the Visual Studio
+project files. You can do this within Visual Studio by building the
+``Build Targets :: visual-studio`` project or by running
+``mach build-backend -b VisualStudio`` from the command line.
+
+Currently, regeneration rewrites the original project files. **If you've made
+any customizations to the solution or projects, they will likely get
+overwritten.** We would like to improve this user experience in the
+future.
+
+Moving Project Files Around
+===========================
+
+The produced Visual Studio solution and project files should be portable.
+If you want to move them to a non-default directory, they should continue
+to work from wherever they are. If they don't, please file a bug.
+
+Invoking mach through Visual Studio
+===================================
+
+It's possible to build the tree via Visual Studio. There is some light magic
+involved here.
+
+Alongside the Visual Studio project files is a batch script named ``mach.bat``.
+This batch script sets the environment variables present in your *MozillaBuild*
+development environment at the time of Visual Studio project generation
+and invokes *mach* inside an msys shell with the arguments specified to the
+batch script. This script essentially allows you to invoke mach commands
+inside the MozillaBuild environment without having to load MozillaBuild.
+
+While projects currently only utilize the ``mach build`` command, the batch
+script does not limit it's use: any mach command can be invoked. Developers
+may abuse this fact to add custom projects and commands that invoke other
+mach commands.