How to determine how a dll is ending up in my /bin (.NET)

Question

I've got a solution with two projects, A and B. A references an external dll C.dll from an external /lib folder.

When I build B, C.dll is ending up in its /bin folder.

B does not reference A or C.dll (but A does reference B).

There is no mention (reference) to/of C.dll anywhere in project B, why is it in its /bin? How can I determine where its coming from?

Update: Using .NET 3.5

Thanks

Answer 1

Did you check the references in Solution Explorer? Maybe there is a left over reference to it there.

Answer 2

If you build your solution on the command line with MSBuild and increase the verbosity you can figure it out. You can just execute the following in a Visual Studio Command Prompt (found in the Start Menu under Visual Studio).

msbuild.exe YourSolution.sln /flp:v=diag

This will create write the log file msbuild.log in the current directory. Then you can search for the file name and back track how it is being copied into that directory. If v=diag is too much info you can try v=detailed.