CruiseControl.NET, is Nant really necessary?

I'm trying to setup CruiseControl.NET for CI. I am having trouble finding references and examples for setting up just a file system watcher to kick off a build of a solution file. An issue I'm having are the examples I do find use Nant which requires setting up a build script. Playing with Nant shows开发者_如何学编程 that you can use msbuild to build sln files which makes me wonder, what is the point of Nant then?

Do I need Nant or can I setup CCNET and have it use msbuild to build a solution file? Is Nant required if I'm going to add in unit testing and other tools like static analysis?

Nant is only required if you want to use Nant. :)

You can use cc.net to build msbuild/solution based builds.

Nant is a port of Ant. It was quite useful in times when MSBuild was not as powerful and flexible as today. We are using CruiseControl using MSBuild only and no NAnt at all. So I would guess your examples are just somewhat outdated.

Nant provides supreme flexibility and fine grain control over what goes on in a build.

NANT is very much flexible application and provide good help when using cruisecontrol.net.

You can still use MSBUILD (If you don't plan to build MSI files apart from other projects) or devenv.com (if you plan to build MSI files apart from other projects) to build your project / solution . Afterwards you can use NUNIT to perform your unit testing . This can be installed separately.