HintPath vs ReferencePath in Visual Studio

Question

What exactly is the difference between the HintPath in a .csproj file and the ReferencePath in a .csproj.user file? We're trying to commit to a convention where dependency DLLs are in a "releases" svn repo and all projects point to a particular release. Since different developers have different folder structures, relative references won't work, so we came up with a scheme to use an environment variable pointing to the particular developer's releases folder to create an absolute reference. So after a reference is added, we manually edit the project file to change the reference to an absolute path using the environment variable.

I've noticed that this can be done with both the HintPath and the ReferencePath, but the only difference I could find between them is that HintPath is resolved at build-time and ReferencePath when the project is loaded into the IDE. I'm not really sure what the ramifications of that are though. I have noticed that VS sometimes rewrites the .csproj.user and I have to rewrite the ReferencePath, but I'm not sure what triggers that.

I've heard that it's best not to check in the .csproj.user file since it's user-specific, so I'd like to aim for that, but I've also heard that the HintPath-specified DLL isn't "guaranteed" to be loaded if the same DLL is e.g. located in the project's output directory. Any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

According to this MSDN blog http://blogs.msdn.com/manishagarwal/archive/2005/09/28/474769.aspx

There is a search order for assemblies when building. The search order is as follows:

• Files from the current project – indicated by {CandidateAssemblyFiles}.
• $(ReferencePath) property that comes from .user/targets file.
• $(HintPath) indicated by reference item.
• Target framework directory.
• Directories found in registry that uses AssemblyFoldersEx Registration.
• Registered assembly folders, indicated by {AssemblyFolders}.
• $(OutputPath) or $(OutDir)
• GAC

So, if the desired assembly is found by HintPath, but an alternate assembly can be found using ReferencePath, it will prefer the ReferencePath'd assembly to the HintPath'd one.

Answer 2

My own experience has been that it's best to stick to one of two kinds of assembly references:

• A 'local' assembly in the current build directory
• An assembly in the GAC

I've found (much like you've described) other methods to either be too easily broken or have annoying maintenance requirements.

Any assembly I don't want to GAC, has to live in the execution directory. Any assembly that isn't or can't be in the execution directory I GAC (managed by automatic build events).

This hasn't given me any problems so far. While I'm sure there's a situation where it won't work, the usual answer to any problem has been "oh, just GAC it!". 8 D

Hope that helps!