Publish A Project That Reference To Another Project To Output DLL To `libs` Dir

Kapara · 2024-11-18T09:13:51.760Z

Hello, I have a project X that compiles as library (DLL) with has a lot of nuget packages. This project used as utils for my other project, project A. Project A is a winExe project, self contained that I want to publish. Upon publish, it builds project X than project A. I want to put all the produced deps DLLs in project X into a directory named `libs` As for now, it does puts it there but the application cannot run and says that I need to install the dotnet runtime. (csprojs in comments)

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:13 AM

Project X csproj:

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
 <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
   <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
   <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
   
   <!--Disable debug symbols on release-->
   <DebugType>None</DebugType>
   <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>
     
 </PropertyGroup>

 <!--============================Referenced Packages============================-->
 <ItemGroup>
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Serilog" Version="4.1.0" />
    ...
 </ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
 <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
   <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
   <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
   
   <!--Disable debug symbols on release-->
   <DebugType>None</DebugType>
   <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>
     
 </PropertyGroup>

 <!--============================Referenced Packages============================-->
 <ItemGroup>
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Serilog" Version="4.1.0" />
    ...
 </ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
 <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
   <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
   <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
   
   <!--Disable debug symbols on release-->
   <DebugType>None</DebugType>
   <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>
     
 </PropertyGroup>

 <!--============================Referenced Packages============================-->
 <ItemGroup>
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Serilog" Version="4.1.0" />
    ...
 </ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
 <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
   <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
   <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
   
   <!--Disable debug symbols on release-->
   <DebugType>None</DebugType>
   <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>
     
 </PropertyGroup>

 <!--============================Referenced Packages============================-->
 <ItemGroup>
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions" Version="9.0.0" />
   <PackageReference Include="Serilog" Version="4.1.0" />
    ...
 </ItemGroup>

Project A csproj:

<!--Project References-->
<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\..\Project X\Project X\ProjectX.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <Folder Include="Resources\" />
</ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
  <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
  <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
  <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
  
  <!--Disable symbols on release-->
  <DebugType>None</DebugType>
  <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

  <!--Publish as self contained-->
  <SelfContained>True</SelfContained>
  <PublishSingleFile>False</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="MoveRunTimeLibraries" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <ItemGroup>
    <RuntimeLibraries Include="$(PublishDir)**\*.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Moving runtime libraries to libraries directory"/>
  <Move SourceFiles="@(RuntimeLibraries)" DestinationFolder="$(PublishDir)libs\"/>
</Target>

<!--Project References-->
<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\..\Project X\Project X\ProjectX.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <Folder Include="Resources\" />
</ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
  <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
  <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
  <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
  
  <!--Disable symbols on release-->
  <DebugType>None</DebugType>
  <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

  <!--Publish as self contained-->
  <SelfContained>True</SelfContained>
  <PublishSingleFile>False</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="MoveRunTimeLibraries" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <ItemGroup>
    <RuntimeLibraries Include="$(PublishDir)**\*.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Moving runtime libraries to libraries directory"/>
  <Move SourceFiles="@(RuntimeLibraries)" DestinationFolder="$(PublishDir)libs\"/>
</Target>

<!--Project References-->
<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\..\Project X\Project X\ProjectX.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <Folder Include="Resources\" />
</ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
  <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
  <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
  <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
  
  <!--Disable symbols on release-->
  <DebugType>None</DebugType>
  <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

  <!--Publish as self contained-->
  <SelfContained>True</SelfContained>
  <PublishSingleFile>False</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="MoveRunTimeLibraries" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <ItemGroup>
    <RuntimeLibraries Include="$(PublishDir)**\*.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Moving runtime libraries to libraries directory"/>
  <Move SourceFiles="@(RuntimeLibraries)" DestinationFolder="$(PublishDir)libs\"/>
</Target>

<!--Project References-->
<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\..\Project X\Project X\ProjectX.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <Folder Include="Resources\" />
</ItemGroup>

 <!--============================Release Configuration============================-->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
  <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
  <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
  <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
  
  <!--Disable symbols on release-->
  <DebugType>None</DebugType>
  <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

  <!--Publish as self contained-->
  <SelfContained>True</SelfContained>
  <PublishSingleFile>False</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="MoveRunTimeLibraries" AfterTargets="Publish">
  <ItemGroup>
    <RuntimeLibraries Include="$(PublishDir)**\*.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Message Text="Moving runtime libraries to libraries directory"/>
  <Move SourceFiles="@(RuntimeLibraries)" DestinationFolder="$(PublishDir)libs\"/>
</Target>

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:24 AM

That sounds like a bad idea. Why do you want this?

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:24 AM

Just so I understand, you want to move the DLL files produced by project X into a

libs

libs

folder in Project A?

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:24 AM

You already have a project reference, what is wrong with that?

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:25 AM

But if you really want this, you could probably create a Post-build event

Specify build events (C#) - Visual Studio (Windows)

Use build events in Visual Studio to specify commands that run before the build starts or after the build finishes for C# programs.

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:31 AM

@FusedQyou
project X is a a library that has a packages in it that used by project A that references it.
When publishing project A, the published folder is full of dotnet runtime dlls that looks massy

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:31 AM

Well it's not supposed to look good

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:31 AM

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:31 AM

I think the better question is "how can I make sure that my project dependencies build into a different folder"

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:32 AM

Yeah.. It can be defined like that too

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:32 AM

mind that it's not only the project X, but the self contained dotnet runtime

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:33 AM

One thing my company does is just not reference dependencies and instead it builds everything and specify the build path to (in this case) go into Project A and into a

libs

libs

subfolder

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:33 AM

But this sucks because you should just use proper dependencies

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:33 AM

A quick Google search gives me this: https://github.com/nulastudio/NetBeauty2

GitHub

GitHub - nulastudio/NetBeauty2: Move a .NET Framework/.NET Core app...

Move a .NET Framework/.NET Core app runtime components and dependencies into a sub-directory and make it beauty. - nulastudio/NetBeauty2

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:34 AM

Maybe you can use this as a Post-build event

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:34 AM

I am familiar with netbeauty, I thought maybe there's a native solution to it

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:34 AM

Doubt it

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:35 AM

maybe move all the dll to a libs folder and redirect the application to look for dependencies in libs

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:36 AM

This type of question is usually not really considered because you're not supposed to look at this anyway

F

FusedQyou•11/18/24, 9:36 AM

FWIW, I'd argue there's no folders at all and everything is inside the root

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:41 AM

Can't I alter the produced

App.runtimeconfig.json

App.runtimeconfig.json

App.runtimeconfig.json

App.runtimeconfig.json to let it probe in lib path?

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:41 AM

yes, should I exlude it?

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:44 AM

there are like 10 of them

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:46 AM

What about this solution?
https://stackoverflow.com/a/72044506

Stack Overflow

Additional probing paths for .NET Core 3 migration

Short version of the question:
Is there any way in .NET Core 3 to specify a local probing path, using the same rules as the <probing> element from app.config? additionalProbingPaths does not ...

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:48 AM

I'll check that.

I can do something else and publish it as SingleFile
but that the issue is that I cant work on the root dir file since every actions made for the root folder (create a file from the exe) results in the creation of it in %temp%

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:49 AM

Sounds good, I don't produce and pdb file in publish

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:49 AM

        var agentPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;

        var agentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(agentPath);

        var agentPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;

        var agentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(agentPath);

        var agentPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;

        var agentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(agentPath);

        var agentPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;

        var agentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(agentPath);

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:49 AM

Yeah I tried it, same issue

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:50 AM

For which on of them?

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:50 AM

.NET8

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:54 AM

Oh I used

CodeBase

CodeBase

CodeBase

CodeBase I ran it now and it seems to work

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 9:56 AM

What is the cons of selfcontained+singlefile beside changing the code where I access the root folder

Original message was deleted

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 10:42 AM

wdym by native dlls?

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 10:42 AM

It sound that the most stable option is to be self contain and have these long list of dlls in the root

K

KaparaOP•11/18/24, 10:56 AM

Yeah, the cons are one up on the pros on this one
I just wanted to make my users to not to install the dotnet runtime

anything else is an extra, also the tidy root folder