I have a visual studio solution.
I have many projects in the solution.
There is one main project which acts as the start up and uses other projects.
There is one project say "ProjectX". Its reference is added to main project.
The ProjectX references another .NET dll (say abc.dll) that isn't part of the solution.
Now this abc.dll should be copied to bin/debug folder of main project, but it isn't getting copied there. Why is it not getting copied, any known reasons ?
I found that if ProjectX referenced the abc.dll but didn't directly use any of the types DEFINED in abc.dll, then abc.dll would NOT be copied to the main output folder. (It would be copied to the ProjectX output folder, to make it extra-confusing.)
So, if you're not explicitly using any of the types from abc.dll anywhere in ProjectX, then put a dummy declaration somewhere in one of the files in ProjectX.
AbcDll.AnyClass dummy006; // this will be enough to cause the DLL to be copied
You don't need to do this for every class -- just once will be enough to make the DLL copy and everything work as expected.
Addendum: Note that this may work for debug mode, but NOT for release. See #nvirth's answer for details.
Just a sidenote to Overlord Zurg's answer.
I've added the dummy reference this way, and it worked in Debug mode:
public class DummyClass
{
private static void Dummy()
{
var dummy = typeof(AbcDll.AnyClass);
}
}
But in Release mode, the dependent dll still did not get copied.
This worked however:
public class DummyClass
{
private static void Dummy()
{
Action<Type> noop = _ => {};
var dummy = typeof(AbcDll.AnyClass);
noop(dummy);
}
}
This infomation actually costed me hours to figure out, so I thought I share it.
Yes, you'll need to set Copy Local to true. However, I'm pretty sure you'll also need to reference that assembly from the main project and set Copy Local to true as well - it doesn't just get copied from a dependent assembly.
You can get to the Copy Local property by clicking on the assembly under References and pressing F4.
It looks slick when you make it an assembly attribute
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Assembly)]
public class ForceAssemblyReference: Attribute
{
public ForceAssemblyReference(Type forcedType)
{
//not sure if these two lines are required since
//the type is passed to constructor as parameter,
//thus effectively being used
Action<Type> noop = _ => { };
noop(forcedType);
}
}
The usage will be:
[assembly: ForceAssemblyReference(typeof(AbcDll.AnyClass))]
Ran into this same issue. Background info: before building, I had added a new Project X to the solution. Project Y depended on Project X and Project A, B, C depended on Project Y.
Build errors were that Project A, B, C, Y, and X dlls could not be found.
Root cause was that newly created Project X targeted .NET 4.5 while the rest of the solution projects targeted .NET 4.5.1. Project X didn't build causing the rest of the Projects to not build either.
Make sure any newly added Projects target the same .NET version as the rest of the solution.
Not sure if this helps but for me, many times I reference a DLL (which automatically adds it to the bin folder of course). However that DLL might need additional DLLs (depending on what functions I'm using). I do NOT want to reference those in my Project because they just simply need to end up in the same folder as the DLL I am actually using.
I accomplish this in Visual Studio by "Adding an existing file". You should be able to add it anywhere except the Add_data folder. personally I just add it to the root.
Then change the properties of that file to ...
Build Action = None (having this set to something like Content actually copies the "root" version to the root, plus a copy in the Bin).
Copy to output folder = Copy if Newer (Basically puts it in the BIN folder only if it is missing, but doesn't do it after that)
When I publish.. my added DLL's only exists in the BIN folder and nowhere else in the Publish location (which is what I want).
You could also check to make sure the DLLs you're looking for aren't included in the GAC. I believe Visual Studio is being smart about not copying those files if it already exists in the GAC on the build machine.
I recently ran in this situation where I'd been testing an SSIS package that needed assemblies to exist in the GAC. I'd since forgotten that and was wondering why those DLLs weren't coming out during a build.
To check what's in the GAC (from a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt):
gacutil -l
Or output to a file to make it easier to read:
gacutil -l > output.txt
notepad.exe output.txt
To remove an assembly:
gacutil -u MyProjectAssemblyName
I should also note, that once I removed the files from the GAC they were correctly output in the \bin directory after a build (Even for assemblies that were not directly referenced in the root project). This was on Visual Studio 2013 Update 5.
If you right Click the referenced assembly, you will see a property called Copy Local. If Copy Local is set to true, then the assembly should be included in the bin. However, there seams to be a problem with Visual studio, that sometimes it does not include the referenced dll in the bin folder... this is the workaround that worked for me:
In my case, it was the stupidest thing, caused by a default behavior of TFS/VS that I disagree with.
Since adding the dll as a reference to the main project did not work, I decided to add it as an "Existing Item", with Copy Local = Always. Even then the file was not there.
Turns out that, even though the file is present on the VS Solution and everything compiled both locally and on the server, VS/TFS did not add actually add the file to source control. It was not included on the "Pending Changes" at all. I had to manually go to the Source Control Explorer and explicitly click on the "Add items to folder" icon.
Stupid because I've been developing for 15 years in VS. I've run into this before, I just did not remember and somehow I missed it because everything still compiled because of the file being a regular reference, but the file that was added as Existing Item was not being copied because it did not exist on the source control server.
I hope this saves someone some time, since I lost 2 days of my life to this.
Issue:
Encountered with a similar issue for a NuGet package DLL (Newtonsoft.json.dll) where the build output doesn't include the referenced DLL. But the compilation goes thru fine.
Fix:
Go through your projects in a text editor and look for references with "Private" tags in them. Like True or False. “Private” is a synonym for “Copy Local.” Somewhere in the actions, MSBuild is taking to locate dependencies, it’s finding your dependency somewhere else and deciding not to copy it.
So, go through each .csproj/.vbproj file and remove the tags manually. Rebuild, and everything works in both Visual Studio and MSBuild. Once you’ve got that working, you can go back in and update the to where you think they need to be.
Reference:
https://www.paraesthesia.com/archive/2008/02/13/what-to-do-if-copy-local-works-in-vs-but.aspx/
Make sure that the dependent DLL used by you does not have target .NET Framework higher than the target .NET framework of your project's Application.
You can check this by selecting your project, then press ALT+ENTER, then select Application from left side and then select Target Framework of your project.
Suppose,
dependent DLL Target Framework = 4.0 and
Application DLL Target Framework = 3.5 then change this to 4.0
Thank you!
This is a slight tweak on nvirth's example
internal class DummyClass
{
private static void Dummy()
{
Noop(typeof(AbcDll.AnyClass));
}
private static void Noop(Type _) { }
}
I would do add it to Postbuild events to copy necessary libraries to the output directories. Something like XCopy pathtolibraries targetdirectory
You can find them on project properties -> Build Events.
TLDR; Visual Studio 2019 may simply need a restart.
I encountered this situation using projects based on Microsoft.NET.Sdk project.
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
Specifically:
Project1: targets .netstandard2.1
references Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console via Nuget
Project2: targets .netstandard2.1
references Project1 via a Project reference
Project2Tests: targets .netcoreapp3.1
references Project2 via a Project reference
At test execution, I received the error messaging indicating that Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console could not be found, and it was indeed not in the output directory.
I decided to work around the issue by adding Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console to Project2, only to discover that Visual Studio's Nuget Manager did not list Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console as installed in Project1, despite it's presence in the Project1.csproj file.
A simple shut down and restart of Visual Studio resolved the problem without the need to add an extra reference. Perhaps this will save someone 45 minutes of lost productivity :-)
You may set both the main project and ProjectX's build output path to the same folder, then you can get all the dlls you need in that folder.
NO NEED FOR DUMMY IN CODE
Just :
add a Reference to the Executeable Project
or/and ensure that the reference in the executeable project has "Copy Local" set to TRUE (which was my "fault") is seems that this "overwrote" the setting in the base referenced library-project...
Other than the common ones above, I had a multi-project solution to publish. Apparently some files target different frameworks.
So my solution: Properties > Specific Version (False)
Add the DLL as an existing item to one of the projects and it should be sorted
VS2019 V16.6.3
For me the problem was somehow the main .proj file ended up with an entry like this for the project whose DLL wasn't getting copied to the parent project bin folder:
<ProjectReference Include="Project B.csproj">
<Project>{blah blah}</Project>
<Name>Project B</Name>
<Private>True</Private>
</ProjectReference>
I manually deleted the line <Private>True</Private> and the DLL was then copied to the main project bin folder on every build of the main project.
If you go to the reference of the problem project in the references folder of the main project, click it and view properties there is a "Copy Local" setting. The private tag equates to this setting, but for me for some reason changing copy local had no effect on the private tag in the .proj file.
Annoyingly I didn't change the copy local value for the reference, no idea how it got set that way and another day wasted tracking down a stupid problem with VS.
Thanks to all the other answers that helped zone me in on the cause.
HTH
I had a similar issue in which a DLL I had included in the project as content and 'Copy always' set, wasn't being copied to the bin folder. I solved this by adding a dependentAssembly reference to the DLL in the app.config.
I have two C# projects in my Visual Studio solution. Project B needs to reference code in Project A. Both projects need to be compiled to dll's and then used in an application.
In Project B I can set a reference to project A and that allows things to compile. But when I actually use the resulting dll's in my application it throws a missing assembly reference error.
My current solution is to tell Project B to reference the bin/debug/ProjectA.dll. Everything works when running the application with this configuration. But this solution has a number of problems. For instance, any code written in Project A that B relies on wont be visible to B until A has been rebuilt. And building the solution relies on A being built first.
Is there a way that I can add a reference to Project A but have the resulting dll built so it looks for the ProjectA.dll reference and not the project itself? I expect there is, but my google searching has resulted in no answers.
For instance, any code written in Project A that B relies on wont be visible to B until A has been rebuilt. And building the solution relies on A being built first.
This is not a problem, this is, in my view, a benefit. As you are guaranteed to not be able access functionality which is not there. In case of a new functionality, one may say, it's not a big deal: I can not find it, got an exception/error so I know something went wrong. But what about updated code ? In this way you are guaranteed that B will use only most updated version of A.
Is there a way that I can add a reference to ProjectA but have the resulting dll built so it looks for the ProjectA.dll reference and not the project itself?
You may simply implement post-build event on your project A which copies it and all dependent DLLs in some predefined central location, where B.dll will be copied too. If your B.dll depends on A.dll, OS, following default behavior, will search for A.dll in the same folder where B.dll is, for first, before checking %PATH% variable content.
I'm working on a C# project that is nearing release. As part of this, I have started building the project and testing it on another machine. This has revealed some odd problems. My biggest concern, though, is that my project is failing to run. I can do some basic things, but when I try to use my projects primary functionality it crashes. Using Visual Studio, I was able to determine the exception that was causing the crash.
Essentially, I'm getting a FileNotFoundException on the dll that contains most of my project's functional code. I'm not sure if I've made an error in adding the dll to my project, or if there's a problem in one of the files in the dll.
The dll was added as a reference using the Project -> Add Reerences feature of the user interface.
The dll contains three files which contain absolute file paths (these are for #import statements). Example follows.
#import "C:\Users\Me\Documents\Projects\MyProject\Delegates\bin\MyDelegate.tlb" raw_interfaces_only
My hang up is I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong here. I suspect that those import statements are causing problems, but I'm not exactly sure how to fix them if they in fact are the problem. This is my first c#/c++ project so any help would be appreciated.
Adding the dll as a reference DOES NOT include the dll with your project--you are simply telling your project to use the library for your code. The dll will need to be installed on all computers that run your application, for your application to use the dll.
If the dll also uses three files (as you specified), then those files must also be included, and be installed in the expected path.
Presuming you have redistribution rights on the dll you mention, you can include the dll in your project. Be sure to set the "copy" property as "copy always" or "copy if newer" and change the reference to use the copy that ends up in you bin folder. Then you only need to be sure to include that dll and install it in the same folder as your application.
I have some c# projects. I added post build event to those projects that copy the resulted assembly (dll) from the bin into common folder.
It appears that each compile generates assembly which is binary different from the previous even when I don't modify the project files.
It is quite a problem for me since I'm using Kiln that monitor those file and think they were modified.
I read somewhere that the dll stores time stamp of compilation which if true then I cannot fix this. If so how do you manage your shared DLL in such a way that your repository (Git/HG) doesn't commit all your compiled projects that weren't modified?
Thanks,
Eran.
To address the specific question of "How do you manage your shared DLL in such a way that your repository (Git/HG) doesn't commit all your compiled projects that weren't modified?", I have a very simple answer: ignore.
We exclude /bin and /obj from the directories which our source control will even attempt to commit. This does mean that you will need to recompile the code on each machine after each change, but Visual Studio would do that anyway for any project where the code has changed.
Don't commit the output folders of your projects.
If you want to have a Setup folder or something similar that always contains the latest versions of the assemblies created by your projects, the solution is to make sure that your post-build event is configured to run only when the build updates the project output. There is an option that is named like this:
I'm using Visual Studio 2010 Pro to build a solution that contains two projects. Project A contains most of my source code, while Project B is intended to run independently, but must use some of the source code contained in Project A.
Under the current configuration, Project A is contained as a reference within Project B. I'd like to be able to build and maintain versions of each project independently, but it appears that when I build the entire solution, ProjectB.exe cannot run without ProjectA.exe in the same local directory. I would think and hope that when the .exe binaries are compiled that all of their dependencies are packaged within each, but that appears not to be the case. In fact, any attempt to run ProjectB.exe while ProjectA.exe is not present results in a System.IO.FileNotFoundException.
Is there a way to build a version ProjectB.exe that runs independently and avoids code duplication?
In cases where you want common code, the best solution is to break out the common classes into a third assembly to serve as a library. (As per Adriano's suggestion.) The other option he hints at is to use the "as link" option when using the "add existing file" to the second project.
If you don't know where it is, use the "Add existing file" option, then in the dialog box to select the file, the "Add" button has a drop-down selection where you can select "As Linked File" (or something to that effect.)
This allows you to compile the same classes into multiple projects. But keep in mind that the namespacing for the linked file cannot be changed for the second project. If the namespace was "ProjectA.Domain", this is how you need to access it in Project B. This was a useful trick for Silverlight projects back before the multi-platform assemblies were introduced.
If you want to get rid or the dependency on A, you will have to extract the common logic into another project (let's call it C), as Adriano suggested in a comment.
If you need even looser bond between the projects, you can reference A (or C) not as a project, but as a built assembly (.dll file) and check Specific Version reference property to True. Additionally, if your project/codebase structure is more complex, check more assembly sharing options here.
Some options:
The common option: Separate the common code into a third class library (DLL) project. And have both ProjectA and ProjectB dependent on it. The downside is that now in order to run the projects you need two files (the main exe and the dll.) This method is how most software is developed: a single executable and a bunch of DLLs.
The correct option: Separate the common code into a third project and modify the project files to create executables that contain both assemblies (similar to statically linked libraries in unmanaged code.) The downside is that Visual Studio does not support this out of the box and you need to modify the project files which are actually MS-Build definition files to do this.
The ugly option: Create shortcuts for the common files in ProjectA in ProjectB. This is the same as copying the common code to the other project, but you're still left with one source file. The downside is that you have to do this for every file and maintain the same structure in both projects. This is an ugly, if viable, option. Choose one of the others.