C#•9mo ago

❔ Help copying dependencies to output folder

Hey guys! I'm setting up some CI tools for myself and have run into the following issue: I use ILRepack to pack all my dependencies into my distributed plugin. As it stands, I expect them to be in the output folder. When I build my project from VS2022, all dependencies are copied to the output folder, as is standard practice for .NET Framework. However, if I build the same project with dotnet build (using .NET 7.0.4), that doesn't happen, and the usual method for doing so in .NET Standard / .NET Core / .NET 5+ (CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies) doesn't work because this is a .NET Framework project. I've explored upgrading my project to .NET Standard, and will do so if I have to, but in testing I hit some compatibility issues that I'm not confident I'd be able to iron out in my large (to me 02LUL

) project. I need to build with dotnet build for CI purposes, so... Either I bite the bullet and upgrade to .NET Standard 2.1 or find some way to locate dependency .dlls when building from dotnet build. Anyone got any insight, or willing to sanity check me? <:ChillBar_pray:872511920119377941>

17 Replies

Azrael•9mo ago

I might just be stupid, but what about MSBuild scripts?

moon•9mo ago

I promise I'm the stupid one 02LUL

What did you have in mind? I'm not very familiar with msbuild scripts

Azrael•9mo ago

all dependencies are copied to the output folder, as is standard practice for .NET Framework.

  <Target Name="MyCopyFilesToOutputDirectory">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(None)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" />
  </Target>

  <Target Name="MyCopyFilesToOutputDirectory">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(None)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" />
  </Target>

Something like this right? You can specify DestinationFolder.

moon•9mo ago

Ah. Something like that, but I'm missing dependencies from nuget as well. If there's a way I could learn of their location in an msbuild script I'm game 02LUL

Azrael•9mo ago

Where are your NuGets located? Oh right, sorry.

moon•9mo ago

Not a clue, unfortunately rooderp

Best info I can provide there is that I'm setting this up in github actions, so I'm relying on dotnet restore to restore them, and that's all I really know rooderp

Azrael•9mo ago

<ItemGroup>
  <NunitPackage Include="$(PackagesDirectory)\NUnit.*\tools\nunit-console.exe"/>
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="Test">
  <CreateItem Include="$(BuildCompileDirectory)\*.Tests.*dll">
    <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="TestAssemblies" />
  </CreateItem>
  <NUnit
    Assemblies="@(TestAssemblies)"
    ToolPath="@(NunitPackage->'%(relativedir)')"
    WorkingDirectory="$(BuildCompileDirectory)"
    OutputXmlFile="$(BuildDirectory)\$(SolutionName).Tests.xml" />
</Target>

<ItemGroup>
  <NunitPackage Include="$(PackagesDirectory)\NUnit.*\tools\nunit-console.exe"/>
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="Test">
  <CreateItem Include="$(BuildCompileDirectory)\*.Tests.*dll">
    <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="TestAssemblies" />
  </CreateItem>
  <NUnit
    Assemblies="@(TestAssemblies)"
    ToolPath="@(NunitPackage->'%(relativedir)')"
    WorkingDirectory="$(BuildCompileDirectory)"
    OutputXmlFile="$(BuildDirectory)\$(SolutionName).Tests.xml" />
</Target>