CODEWITHSUNDEEP
msbuild.net-core.net-standard
stevec
stevec

Reputation: 556

.Net Framework 4.7 console app references .NET core dll - unexpected files in output directory

I have a .NET Framework Console app (.Net Framework 4.7) which references a .NET Core dll (.Net Standard 2.0). The .Net core dll uses nothing outside NETStandard.Library.

I noticed some unexpected files in the /bin/Debug directory. After some investigation I have determined that these are not coming from any of the referenced packages, but are being copied from 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Preview\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\Microsoft.NET.Build.Extensions\\net461\ref

The contents of this directory differ across the machines we are using, causing different DLLs to end up in the output directory. This was making the debugging process inconsistent.

Now that I have worked out what was causing the problem, I was wondering what the explanation of this is, and whether there is a way to prevent it from happening, ie to have only the packages referenced in the project be copied to /bin/Debug

Upvotes: 1

Views: 624

Answers (1)

Martin Ullrich
Martin Ullrich

Reputation: 100761

These files are expected and even required to allow .NET Standard libraries to work on .NET Framework. They contain the necessary type forwarding definitions so that at runtime, every assembly can be loaded correctly - for example, libraries can reference System.Object from netstandard.dll (.NET Standard >= 2.0) or System.Runtime.dll (.NET Standard < 2.0). The additional assemblies in your output file will redirect the type to .NET Framework's mscorlib.dll.

There is this GitHub issue answering a similar question.

Note that the upcoming .NET Framework 4.7.1 will have the all the required type definitions and forwards out of the box so once a project targets 4.7.1, no additional assemblies will be added to your project's output folder.

Upvotes: 3

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