.NET Assembly Dependencies

Question

Perhaps I am missing something obvious here but...

I have built a reusable generic C# class library project say (A.dll) which references 3 other assemblies say (B.dll, C.dll and D.dll)

However if I want to reuse my component A.dll in another project I still have to include the references to B.dll, C.dll and D.dll.

Is there any way you can configure A.dll to build all its dependencies into the A.dll so I don't have to include the other 3 assemblies?

Cheers

Answer 1

It's possible to merge assemblies, using ILMerge.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\ILMerge\ILMerge.exe /target:library /ndebug /out:abcd.dll a.dll b.dll c.dll d.dll"

You'll get abcd.dll which will contain all four dlls.

Edit: You'll have to reference the dll itself in the new projects, and not the projects. Also, if you need debugging symbols for the new dll, take the /ndebug out.

Answer 2

This would be something like static linking of DLLs which works fine with native C++. As far as I know you cannot statically link assemblies in .NET code, thus you have to include all DLLs.