I need to generate a list of all the files which are enough to run my application on any machine. I need this for a setup program. When i go to bin/release folder i'm able to see some pdb files and some configuration files, which i think will not be needed. I tried to disable generation of pdb files too but it still generates pdb for the other projects present in the solution.
So i need a way in visual studio 2008, which can get me all the files (the .exe and .dll and other files) required by my application to run.
Thanks.
Have you tried publishing the application (Build > Publish [app])?
This should just copy all the essential files to the specified folder.
The pdb files are used for debugging. Building in "Release" mode should exclude these files.
You can also create a setup project within the solution. Using that project it is possible to see a list of included files.
If you make a release build or publish the application then you should have a complete set of assemblies your application needs.
However, it can still rely on assemblies which reside in the GAC (Global Assembly Cache) of your machine. Check the references of your project if you think there are assemblies missing in the bin folder.
To solve this exact problem with our software, we wrote a simple console app that finds all the .vbproj & .csproj files in our projects directory, then changes all of the to Release mode (which does not create pdb files, documentation files etc).
This is then run by the build machine (CruiseControl.Net) before it starts compiling the projects.
Related
I'm using Accord.video.ffmpeg.x64. My project is built in x64 as well. It is a click once windows forms application. I installed accord through nuget. C++ redistributor is installed.
Everything works fine when I run the program from debug. But when I publish it and try to run it (on the same machine or any other machine) I get the error "could not load file or assembly 'accord.video.ffmpeg.x64.dll' or one of its dependencies."
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Install on the machine both
vc_redist-2015.x64.exe
vc_redist-2015.x86.exe
and copy all files from your Nuget packages folders
packages\Accord.Video.FFMPEG.x64.3.8.0\lib\net(Version)
packages\Accord.Video.FFMPEG.x64.3.8.0\build
to the installation folder of your application.
I had the same issue this week, but I found the solution! When I compared the files in the bin folder vs the application directory under programs files, the bin folder had 8 additional files that weren't in the application installed folder:
avcodec-57.dll,
avdevice-57.dll,
avfilter-6.dll,
avformat-57.dll,
avutil-55.dll,
postproc-54.dll,
swresample-2.dll,
swscale-4.dll,
These files need to be copied into the application install folder. They can't be referenced since they aren't .net they are c++ dll. So what I did was added the dll files directly to my project , then right click each file properties and for build action I selected "content", then for copy to output directory, I put "copy if newer." This fixed the issue for me, so I hope it works for you too!
I am going to deploy/publish a wpf application to users by simply giving(via inno setup compiler) the Release folder of Visual Studio 2012 solution. But I think I do not want all the files coming from there because some may for the purpose for Visual Studio. SO what are the files that I can remove to reduce that size of my deployment ?
Thank you in advance.
You'll probably have the following files in your Release directory after build:
MyApp.exe
MyApp.pdb
MyApp.exe.config
MyApp.vshost.exe
MyApp.vshost.exe.config
MyApp.vshost.exe.manifest
Files you have to include in deployment:
MyApp.exe
MyApp.exe.config
.exe.config contains default application settings and has to be deployed unless you use settings designer in which case default values will be embedded in the assembly itself.
Files you can optionally include in deployment:
MyApp.pdb
.pdb file contains debugging info (assembly's debug symbols) providing you info about code line numbers when analysing call stacks in exception/crash reports.
Files used by Visual Studio so they should not be deployed:
MyApp.vshost.exe
MyApp.vshost.exe.config
MyApp.vshost.exe.manifest
Release directory can also contain DLLs (build outputs from other projects or 3rd party libraries) referenced by the main executable and they shall also be included in the deployment.
I am writing an add-in dll in c#, VS2012, Win 7 x64. Debugging has been fine; VS registers the dll at the end of building and I've also set up a batch files in my project folder to register and unregister the assembly.
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\regasm.exe" /codebase ".\bin\Debug\MyAddin.dll"
This will work every time. FYI my development files are also on a network drive and they will register. Even changing to an absolute file path for the dll works.
Now I am working on deploying the add-in, so I'm starting with WIX to create the installer MSI to put the files in the correct install folder. This is where I start getting the RA0000 "Unable to locate input assembly 'MyAddin.dll' or one of its dependencies." error from regasm.exe when I run from a batch file in in my project folder to register the files once they are installed.
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\regasm.exe" /codebase "C:\Program Files\Suite Folder\Product Folder\MyAddin.dll"
This never works. I could see if regasm never worked, but anywhere outside of the output folder won't. So here is what I've tried so far.
Since my Debug output folder has other files like the .tlb and other stuff I started deleting them one by one all the way down to my add-in and the dependent .dlls. Just to verify what files are really needed to register in the output folder.
I thought maybe WIX was not creating the files correctly so I copied all the files including the .tlb and others from my output folder into the install folder (I know these should not impact anything but just to be thorough)
I've unregistered the dll after VS builds thinking that more than one register was the problem.
Tried running regasm from within the install folder directly so it could find all dependencies there.
Made sure all of my dlls are x64 platform.
Tried all lines from batch files in CMD window (w/ and w/o run as admin).
File attributes from output to install folder are the same.
Any ideas?
I've built against the release profile and this creates an executable build within the release directory in my project.
How do I best distribute to clients from this executable? There are a lot of files within this folder which don't appear when installed through the installer, such as the mainifest and one called application.exe.xml (which is confusing when Windows hides the extension in Windows Explorer).
Are these all necessary? Can I just send the executable? Or will I need to send with all the files? Is there a way to build without all these files?
You must send the EXE file and any DLL file that you reference locally. If you use COM references and the like, you need to register them during the installation. The same thing for the GAC I think, but I haven't used that for stand-alone applications myself.
The application.exe.config file contains the application settings (a copy of app.config). If you don't use settings or the user doesn't typically care about them, you can omit the file, and it will use the default values you built the application with.
The vshost files are not needed (if you have them). They are used by Visual Studio's debugger. The .pdb files contain debug data used to facilitate DLL file to source matching. Unless you plan on attaching a debugger to the application, there is no point sending those.
Usually, in an XCopy deployment you have to deploy (literally copy all files deployment with no setup/installer program) the content of the output folder (like debug or release) without:
*.pdb - debug symbols
*.xml - xml documentation
?vshost? - Visual Studio hosting files
In fact, it anyway also depends on your specific application. As a developer, you need to know what you are producing; in case you are using an xml file which is not the result of the .NET documentation compiler, but a static file copied in the output folder, then do not forget to deploy it.
A last note: developers usually disable the option to hide file extensions in Windows Explorer ;-)
You need to understand what an installer does or why an installer is important.
An installer takes care of the basic environment. The installer can carry dependent assemblies/modules along with the application. It can also check if you need something before you run, like .NET on the target machine. It can also create the shortcuts on the desktop or start menu. Plus it also provides adequate options on the target machine to uninstall it.
If you wish to ship the executable alone, you might miss out some assemblies that the executable depends on. The target machine may or may not have the correct .NET version installed.
Use the program: HM NIS EDIT from HM Soft.
Build your project
Run NIS EDIT
Make a new script from the wizard (Ctrl + W)
Run all the steps
Select all the .dll and .exe files
Build a setup file
I have a relatively complex console application which relies on several dlls. I would like to "ship" this in the best form. My preferred way would be an exe file with all dependencies embedded in it (not that big, about 800K). Another thing would be to just zip the contents of the "Debug" folder and make that available, but I'm not sure if everything will be available like that (will all dependencies be resolved just by zipping the debug folder?)
What reliable practices exist for deploying console apps written in C# using VisualStudio 2008?
If you just copy the Foo.exe, dlls and Foo.exe.config files, it's likely to be okay. Have a look at what else is in the debug folder though - you (probably) don't want to ship the .pdb files, or Foo.vshost.exe. Is there anything else? If you've got any items marked as Content which are copied to the output folder, you'll need those too.
You could use ilmerge to put all the dependencies into one exe file, but I'm somewhat leery of that approach - I'd stick with exe + dependency dlls.
You should look into setup projects in Visual Studio. They let you set up dependencies and include the DLLs you need. The end result is a setup.exe and an MSI installer.
Here's a walkthrough that should help.
OR you could use a self-extracting ZIP file. Package all the normal files up - .exe, .dll, .config, and anything else - into a zip file. Extract into a temp directory and set the run-on-extract program to be the actual console exe.
Create a setup project in VS08 and add the primary output of the console app project to it, this resolves the dependencies and packages them in a .msi
You can use wix installers to bundle it. For console application, exe + dependicies DLLs + nuget DLLs , zipping them is enough.