Publish Web Application Project via MSBuild

Assuming that you’re running it from the same directory the .csproj file exists in (using Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt):

msbuild wapProjectName.csproj /p:Configuration=Release

msbuild wapProjectName.csproj /target:_CopyWebApplication /property:OutDir=c:\SomePath\
  /property:WebProjectOutputDir=c:\SomePath\ /p:Configuration=Release

copy bin\*.* c:\SomePath\bin\

Enjoy.