CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netvisual-studio-2010.net-assembly
Potzon
Potzon

Reputation: 33

Referencing a 3rd party assembly which is not located in the root location

I have a Visual Studio 2010 C# project which creates an .exe and this project is using some 3rd party class library. My project is located in: /MyFramWork/tests/test1 3rd party library is located at: /MyFrameWork/bin/utils/

I am adding the reference to the library by using References->Add Reference->Browse. I can see that in the project file all is fine: ....\bin\utils\log4net.dll False

I would like to reference the 3rd party library without using the option "Copy Local". However if I don't use the option, the library is not found and I get an exception.

My question is: Is there a way to specify that the 3rd party library should be found at ....\bin\utils. It seems that when the .exe gets build the information from the .csproj gets lost.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3569

Answers (4)

Potzon1
Potzon1

Reputation: 1

It's me Potzon. I am still investigating this incredibly silly problem.

I have been hoping for some elegant solution. I am about to build fairly large framework with lots of assemblies which would be placed inside /Framework/bin/. However I wanted to have some directory structure inside the the directory, for example /bin/utils, /bin/test, /bin/devices/ and so on.

One possible solution that I have found is to define environmental variable DEVPATH (see here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cskzh7h6.aspx) but it turns out that .net4 is not using this variable when an assembly is run independently (outside the visual studio), or at least this is the case for me - I can't make it work.

It seems that the solution to put all the assemblies inside the /bin directory without using sub-directories is the best. I think I will give up and just do it this way.

Upvotes: 0

Anil Mathew
Anil Mathew

Reputation: 2696

If you need to load assemblies from custom locations, you could try the Assembly.LoadFile Method.

The following links may be useful:

C# - Correct Way to Load Assembly, Find Class and Call Run() Method

http://www.csharp-examples.net/reflection-examples/

Upvotes: 0

Bernard
Bernard

Reputation: 7961

Use the <probing> element to specify where the CLR should search for your assemblies. The only restriction is that the assemblies must be located in subdirectories of your application's base directory.

For example, if your application base directory is C:\MyFramework, then you could have your assemblies in C:\MyFramework\bin.

Have a look at this article to learn how the CLR searches for assemblies.

Upvotes: 1

Joe White
Joe White

Reputation: 97696

By default, .NET apps look for their dependencies in only two places: the EXE directory, and the GAC (Global Assembly Cache).

You have three choices:

  • You can make sure the dependency gets copied into the same directory as your EXE (this is what Copy Local does). This is the best choice most of the time, which is why it's the default when you reference an assembly that's not already in the GAC.
  • You can install your dependency into the GAC using gacutil. This might be a good choice if your dependency isn't going to change, is going to be in a different location on every development machine (i.e. if relative paths won't work well), and if you want to use it from many different projects. But it's a major pain if the dependency is still under active development and changing frequently. You'll also need to make sure to put the DLL into the GAC on every computer you deploy your app to.
  • You can customize the dependency-loading behavior so it looks in other places, as Hans noted in his comment. This is an advanced option and comes with a whole new set of headaches.

Normally, you would just use Copy Local; it's a very sensible default. You should need a fairly compelling reason to do anything different.

Upvotes: 2

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