NAME

       vbnc, vbnc2 - Mono Visual Basic Compiler.

SYNOPSIS

       vbnc [option] [source-files]

DESCRIPTION

       (vbnc) is a CIL compiler for the VisualBasic.NET language.

       Applications  developed on Windows with vbc can execute on Mono and applications compiled with 'vbnc' can
       be executed on .NET runtime.

       The Mono Visual Basic compiler accepts the same options as the Microsoft VB.NET compiler.  Those  options
       can start with a slash or a dash (/checked is the same as -checked).

       Visual  Basic.NET  source  files normally ends with a ".vb" extension.  Compilation of VB.NET source code
       requires all the files that make up a library, module or executable to be provided on the  command  line.
       There  is no support for partial compilation.  To achieve the benefits of partial compilation, you should
       compile programs into their own assemblies, and later reference them with the "-r" flag.

       The Mono Basic compiler generates images (.exe files) that contain CIL byte code that can be executed  by
       any  system  that  implements a Common Language Infrastructure virtual machine such as the Microsoft .NET
       runtime engine on Windows or the Mono runtime engine on Unix systems.  Executables are  not  bound  to  a
       specific CPU or operating system.

       The    Mono    Basic    compiler   by   default   only   references   these   assemblies:   mscorlib.dll,
       Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll, System.dll and System.Xml.dll.  If you want to reference extra  libraries  you
       must manually specify them using the the -r: command line option.

       The vbnc compiler is used to compile against the latest available profile (currently the 4.0 profile).

       The vbnc2 compiler is used to compile against the 2.0 profile.

OPTIONS

       -addmodule:MODULE1[,MODULE2]
              Includes the specified modules in the resulting assembly.

       -codepage:ID
              Specifies  the  code  page  used to process the input files from the point it is specified on.  By
              default files will be processed in the current code page.  The compiler  will  also  automatically
              detect Unicode/UTF8 files that have an embedded byte mark at the beginning.

       Other popular encodings are 28591 (Latin1), 1252 (iso-8859-1) and 65001 (UTF-8).

       -define:SYMLIST, -d:SYMLIST
              Defines  the symbol listed by the semi-colon separeted list SYMLIST SYMBOL.  This can be tested in
              the source code by the pre-processor, or can be used by methods that have  been  tagged  with  the
              Conditional attribute.

       -debug:AMOUNT
              Specify  the  amount  of  debugging information to emit. Possible values for AMOUNT are "full" and
              "pdbonly".

       -imports:import-list
              Declare global Imports for listed namespaces.

       -ignorewarn:XXXX
              Ignores warning number XXXX.

       -lib:PATHLIST, -libpath:PATHLIST
              Each path specified in the comma-separated list will direct the compiler to look for libraries  in
              that specified path.

       -main:CLASS
              Tells  the  compiler which CLASS or MODULE contains the entry point. Useful when you are compiling
              several classes with a Main method.

       -nologo
              Suppress printing copyright information on startup.

       -nostdlib, -nostdlib+
              Use this flag if you want to compile the core library.  This makes the compiler load its  internal
              types from the assembly being compiled.

       -noconfig, -noconfig+
              Disables  the default compiler configuration to be loaded.  The compiler by default has references
              to the system assemblies.

       -nowarn
              Makes the compiler ignore warnings.

       -optioncompare:binary, -optioncompare:text
              Select between binary and text string comparisons. The default is binary string comparisons.

       -optionexplicit[+|-]
              Require explicit declaration of variables

       -optionstrict[+|-]
              Enforce strict language semantics

       -out:FNAME, -o FNAME
              Names the output file to be generated.

       -q -quiet
              Commands the compiler to show only error messages for syntax-related errors and warnings.

       -resource:RESOURCE[,ID]
              Embeds to the given resource file.  The optional ID can be used to give a different  name  to  the
              resource.  If not specified, the resource name will be the file name.

       -linkresource:RESOURCE[,ID]
              Links  to  the  specified  RESOURCE.   The  optional  ID  can be used to give a name to the linked
              resource.

       -r:ASSEMBLY1[,ASSEMBLY2], -r ASSEMBLY1[,ASSEMBLY2]
              Reference the named assemblies.  Use this to use classes from the named assembly in your  program.
              The  assembly  will  be  loaded from either the system directory where all the assemblies live, or
              from the path explicitly given with the -L option.

       You can also use a semicolon to separate the assemblies instead of a comma.

       -sdkpath:PATH
              Sets the path to the required framework assemblies (mscorlib.dll  and  Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll).
              To  compile  to  a  different  profile  than  the  default,  use  this  option  to the path to the
              mscorlib.dll of the profile you want to compile to.

       -removeintchecks[+|-]
              Remove integer checks. Default off.

       -rootnamespace:namespace
              Specifies the root namespace for all type declarations

       -target:KIND, -t:KIND
              Used to specify the desired target.  The possible  values  are:  exe  (plain  executable),  winexe
              (Windows.Forms executable), library (component libraries) and module (partial library).

       -utf8output[+|-]
              Emit compiler output in UTF8 character encoding. Currently ignored.

       --version
              Shows the compiler version.

       -warnaserror, -warnaserror+
              Treat warnings as errors.

STABILITY

       As  of  early  2011,  the  Mono  Visual Basic compiler is still considered beta software. The compiler is
       feature-complete (targeting the Microsoft Visual Basic 8 compiler), however crashes are  still  occuring,
       most notably with incorrect code.

AUTHORS

       See the ChangeLog for authors

LICENSE

       The  Mono  Visual  Basic  compiler is released under the terms of the GNU LGPL.  Alternative licenses are
       available from Novell.

SEE ALSO

       mcs(1), mono(1), mint(1), sn(1)

BUGS

       To  report  bugs  in  the  compiler,  you  can  file  bug   reports   in   our   bug   tracking   system:
       http://bugzilla.ximian.com.

MAILING LIST

       The Mono Basic Mailing List is available at: mono-vb-list-request@ximian.com

                                                21 February 2006                                         vbnc(1)