I have a solution with a few projects. How I can merge all projects into a single project? I want to just compile my solution and get single file application at the output.
Note: this question has been edited for clarity. Originally it was confusing and seemed to imply that it was looking for information on merging already-compiled assemblies.
I think you're looking for ILMerge.
You want to merge the projects, not just the assemblies?
I don't know any automated process, but I think you'll want to do something like:
Create your "master" project.
Look at the .NET and binary references (not project references) that other projects have. Add each of these references to the "master" project.
Create a folder for each project that you want to merge into the master project.
For each project, copy all files from that project to the corresponding folder in the master project. Make sure you give it the same BuildAction.
Build! If the build fails, then you have more work to do.
Remove the original projects from the solution.
Does every file in each project use its own namespace? If so, the above is all you have to do that I can think of. Otherwise, you'll want to make it so, recompile, and retest before trying to merge the projects into one.
(Answer based on old interpretation of question)
I am assuming you want to merge all of the resulting assemblies into a single one, and not the projects in to a single solution.
If that is the case, use ILMerge.
From the site:
ILMerge is a utility for merging multiple .NET assemblies into a single .NET assembly. It works on executables and DLLs alike and comes with several options for controlling the processing and format of the output. See the accompanying documentation for details.
This is not the only tool - you can also use Mono.Merge for the same functionality.
Related
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.
I have a class library project contains common codes that used in my projects and i use subversion as source control.
i have some question about managing solution,projects and codes for usability.
I want share this class library between projects and when i update it , the update applying easily to all projects.Where can i locate this class library to share between projects and improve source controlling , usability and ...?
Any Idea?
You can use NuGet packages as a means of distributing the DLLs - build your common assemblies, pack build results into a specific directory and use that directory as a repository for NuGet Package Manager. One part of NuGet options is downloading the latest package version automatically, so whenever you open the solution, the package manager scans the repository for newer version and downloads it, if there is one.
Here's a very easy tutorial: http://juristr.com/blog/2012/04/using-nuget-to-distribute-our-company/
You can use several approaches:
You can add this project as existing project to all solutions from one place. It is simplest method, but when it is changed in one solution, all other can become broken.
You can branch your common library project to all solutions as different brunch. In this case, when you change it in one solution, all other solutions will not brake, but you should spend much time to merge changes from all brunches of your common library.
A solution can contain many projects, so you can effectively put the class library project anywhere and reference it from each new solution as required. This means you have only one copy of the source on your machine.
When you build each project it will compile the class library if necessary so all you need to do is have some process that keeps the source up to date.
I want to list the assemblies in my solution, but only those which are projects in my solution rather than just a list of loaded assemblies as would be returned by AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies();
Is there a class that gives me run time solution information? Ideally I'm looking for something like Application.GetSolutionProjects();
Project is VS2008/C#/.Net 3.5
Thanks
The application is actually separate to your solution. You could parse the solution and project XMLs to generate a list of assemblies created by your solution.
I'm not sure how you'd do this at runtime as the solution and project files wouldn't generally be available. You could precreate a list at compile time, then have a method read it. Or you could dump your assemblies into a specific subdirectory at compile time, and just examine that directory to list your assemblies at runtime.
Solution file is just for VS, It's not a part of .net framework, and it not include in projects, i.e you can have one project and multiple solution which contains this project, you want fetch what solutions project? But, You can parse specific solution file to get all projects in the solution
My case: I have an app.exe and several dlls for it -- a.dll, b.dll, c.dll, etc (they come from single VS solution which consists of many projects). I would like to merge (ilmerge) all dlls into one so I would have: app.exe + x.dll.
Now, there is a problem -- the application expects to have all dlls so when I put just single file x.dll it won't run. So how to "redirect" application to use one x.dll -- is it possible at all?
The one solution I am aware is deleting all references to projects in Visual Studio and add instead reference to merged dll. But this would disable dependency chaining while recompiling solution.
Btw. I cannot merge exe and dlls together because this is a wpf app, and ilmerge cannot handle it.
You could instead of creating 3 DLLs you could create 3 .NetModules and turn them into one DLL. It would require some editing of the actual CSPROJ files because creating .NetModules is not currently integrated into the MSBuild system, but it can be done.
You can think of a .NetModule as a kind of static library in C/C++. Of course there are differences but overall the concept is similar. They are most common when trying to make a single DLL containing multiple .NET languages, but they will work for you as well. Check them out here.
I'll recommend if you read this blog. Its an alternative to ILMerge when you need to merge WPF assemblies.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/02/03/jeffrey-richter-excerpt-2-from-clr-via-c-third-edition.aspx
I have a C# Application that uses some other Assemblies, so when I compile, I end up with my .exe and 2 or 3 other .dll Files. Ideally, I only want 1 .exe file. At the moment I use ILMerge for that, but as the Assemblies that I use are Open Source (and under the same license), I wonder if there is an easy way to add them to my Solution and compile them into the .exe?
What I do not want:
Creating a Subfolder in my main .exe and copying all the other files into it
Adding it as a separate solution but then add it to my .exe Project with "Add as Link"
I suppose that ILMerge is more or less doing exactly what I want, but if I can apply the merging on a compiler level already, that would be what I want.
Needless to say, the referenced assemblies have no main() function, so no clashes are to be expected.
You could add the dependencies as embedded resources and then load them manually but this would require a code change so it's not ideal.
I think that ILMerge is your best option here.
As I never tried this, I don't know if this will work and/or meet your expectations, but, there's an option of compiling .net code to a netmodule, instead of an assembly, and then those modules, theoretically, could be added to other assemblies, You can read about it here and here.