CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netdll.net-4.0c++-cli
amalgamate
amalgamate

Reputation: 2310

how to explicitly link a cpp/cli file to a c# library .dll?

I have a c++/CLI library that is in turn calling a c# library. That is fine, it is linking implicitly and all is good with the world. But for various reasons the libraries are not getting quite the prefect treatment by our automated build process, and the libraries are not finding each other unless we move the libraries to locations that we would rather not have them in, and would rather not fold into our build process.

It is suggested to me that we/I could write a post-build event that uses XCOPY. but lets say we don't want to do that.

Another suggestion is to explicitly load the dll. Windows says that to link explicitly "Applications must make a function call to explicitly load the DLL at run time." The problem is that Microsoft's example is not enough for my small mind to understand how to proceed with this idea. Worse, the only example I could find is out of date. Perhaps I am not using the right search terms but I am having difficulty finding more about it with google.

How do we explicitly Link a c++/Cli Library to a C# .dll?

----edit

OK, How do we explicitly Link a C++/CLI code, which exports a library using __declspec(), to a C# .dll.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 172

Answers (1)

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 942257

There is no such thing as a "C++/CLI library", only assemblies are supported. There is no explicit or implicit linking, binding always happens at runtime. Assemblies are found at runtime by the CLR, the rules it uses to locate them are described in detail in the MSDN library.

Copying all dependencies into the same directory as the EXE is the sane way to go about it while you are developing the code. Well supported by build system, the C# and C++ rules are however different. C++ projects build to the solution's Debug directory, C# projects build to the EXE project's bin\Debug directory. So yes, altering a C++ project's Output Directory setting or copying files with a post build event is usually required to get everything together.

Upvotes: 2

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