Msbuild doesn't copy references (dlls) if using project dependencies in solution

Question

Hi,

i had a look on many similar questions on this side but none of them answered the question to my problem. The whole day i tried to solve this by finding a solution (via google etc.):

I have 4 projects in my VS solution (everyone targeting .net 3.5) - for my problem only these two are important:

1. MyBaseProject <- this class library references a 3rd party dll (elmah.dll)
2. MyWebProject1 <- this web application project has a reference to MyBaseProject

I added the elmah.dll reference to MyBaseProject in Visual studio 2008 by clicking "Add reference..." -> "Browse" tab -> selecting the "elmah.dll".

The Properties of the Elmah Reference are as follows:

• Aliases - global
• Copy local - true
• Culture -
• Description - Error Logging Modules and Handlers (ELMAH) for ASP.NET
• File Type - Assembly
• Path - D:\webs\otherfolder\_myPath\__tools\elmah\Elmah.dll
• Resolved - True
• Runtime version - v2.0.50727
• Specified version - false
• Strong Name - false
• Version - 1.0.11211.0

In MyWebProject1 i added the reference to Project MyBaseProject by: "Add reference..." -> "Projects" tab -> selecting the "MyBaseProject". The Properties of this reference are the same except the following members:

• Description -
• Path - D:\webs\CMS\MyBaseProject\bin\Debug\MyBaseProject.dll
• Version - 1.0.0.0

If i run the build in visual studio the elmah.dll is copied to my MyWebProject1's bin directory, along with MyBaseProject.dll!

However if i clean and run msbuild for the solution (via D:\webs\CMS>C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe /t:ReBuild /p:Configuration=Debug MyProject.sln) the elmah.dll is missing in MyWebProject1's bin directory - although the build itself contains no warning or errors!

I already made sure that the .csproj of MyBaseProject contains the private element with the value "true" (that should be an alias for "copy local" in VS):

<Reference Include="Elmah, Version=1.0.11211.0, Culture=neutral, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\mypath\__tools\elmah\Elmah.dll</HintPath>
 **<Private>true</Private>**
</Reference>

(The private tag didn't appear in the .csproj's xml by default, although VS said "copy local" true. I switched "copy local" to false - saved - and set it back to true again - save!)

What is wrong with MSBUILD? How to get the (elmah.dll) reference copied to MyWebProject1's bin?

I do NOT want to add a postbuild copy action to every projects postbuild command! (Imagine i would have many projects depend on MyBaseProject!)

Please help. I get mad on this!

Thanks, tobi

Answer 1

Take a look at:

This msbuild forum thread i started

you will find my temp solution / workaround there!

(MyBaseProject needs some code that is referencing some classes (whatever) from the elmah.dll for elmah.dll being copied to MyWebProject1's bin!)

Answer 2

If you are not using the assembly directly in code then visual studio whilst trying to be helpful detects that it is not used and doesn't include it in the output. I'm not sure why you are seeing different behaviour between visual studio and msbuild. You could try setting the build output to diagnostic for both and compare the results see where it diverges.

As for your elmah.dll reference if you are not referencing it directly in code you could add it as an item to your project and set the Build Action to Content and the Copy to Output Directoy to Always.