CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#embedsatellite-assembly
rmbl
rmbl

Reputation: 325

How to embed a satellite assembly into the EXE file

I got the problem that I need to distribute a C# project as a single EXE file which is not an installer but the real program. It also needs to include a translation which currently resides in a subdirectory.

Is it possible to embed it directly into the binary?

Upvotes: 18

Views: 11205

Answers (5)

MensSana
MensSana

Reputation: 580

Here's a simple (but very practical) way to reach your goal. In my opinion, it's the easiest to maintain. That said, every opinion has its value...

All the magic happens in Program.cs and the Post Build Event, which calls ManageLanguage.cmd.

Sample Github projet with instructions: https://github.com/MensSana/CSharp-embed-satellite-assemblies

Upvotes: 0

binball
binball

Reputation: 2345

Here it is the simplest solution which I saw in the Internet:

also handy implementation of this solution: http://code.google.com/p/costura/wiki/HowItWorksEmbedTask

Upvotes: 6

Ian Davis
Ian Davis

Reputation: 3868

ILMerge will create a single exe file for your application. You can download it from Microsoft. It merges assemblies together and can internalize them so that the merged classes are set to internal. This is what I have used to create single file releases a number of times. It is pretty easy to integrate into your build process.

Upvotes: 3

csharptest.net
csharptest.net

Reputation: 64248

Another option is to embed the other assemblies as an EmbededResource. Then handle the app domains AssemblyResolve, from here you can read the assembly from the resource and load it into the runtime. Something like the following:

public class HookResolver
{
    Dictionary<string, Assembly> _loaded;

    public HookResolver()
    {
        _loaded = new Dictionary<string, Assembly>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
    }

    System.Reflection.Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
    {
        string name = args.Name.Split(',')[0];
        Assembly asm;
        lock (_loaded)
        {
            if (!_loaded.TryGetValue(name, out asm))
            {
                using (Stream io = this.GetType().Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(name))
                {
                    byte[] bytes = new BinaryReader(io).ReadBytes((int)io.Length);
                    asm = Assembly.Load(bytes);
                    _loaded.Add(name, asm);
                }
            }
        }
        return asm;
    }
}

Upvotes: 5

Dale
Dale

Reputation: 13034

The short answer is yes, there is a program called Assembly Linker (AL.exe) that will embed assemblies in this way. Its main use case is localization, sounds like that is what you need it for too. If so, it should be straightforward.

Eg:

al /t:lib /embed:strings.de.resources /culture:de /out:MyApp.resources.dll

or

al.exe /culture:en-US /out:bin\Debug\en-US\HelloWorld.resources.dll /embed:Resources\MyResources.en-US.resources,HelloWorld.Resources.MyResources.en-US.resources /template:bin\Debug\HelloWorld.exe

This is an example walkthrough of it MSDN with the above examples and more. Also you may want to read this blog post which explains its usage a bit further.

Upvotes: 9

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