How can I have a pre-build event halt the build if something went wrong with it (VS 2010/C#)?

I'm executing a simple console exe program in a pre build event that consolidates a bunch of xml files into one big xml file. This will vastly cut down on spin-up time when the program is run.

Is there a special return code I can use that will inform VS-2010 that something went wrong with the pre-build event and will cause the build to halt?

Is there some other solution to this?

Thanks,

Isaac

Build events normally abort when one of their commands fail. If you have to such condition then you can create one with the exit /b command. Like this:

if exist "foo.bar" goto good
exit /b 42
:good

The exit code is fairly arbitrary, anything other than 0 causes a build abort.