Nant copy all files to output - is this needed? / Visual Studio Build Process

Question

When you compile a project in Visual Studio (VS), as part of the compilaton VS takes all of the referenced libraries that are not in the GAC and copies them to the output folder of your build. e.g.

ProjectA.Dll

• References: ProjectB.Dll
• References: ProjectC.Dll

In the bin\debug folder you will find ProjectA.dll, ProjectB.dll and ProjectC.dll.

What I am trying to do now in Nant is to build a .exe file and I think (unless I am mistaken) that unless the references libraries are in the GAC then the .exe file will need all of the references Dll's in the same folder.

So my question is: is there a way I can make Nant do this automatically? In the CSC tag for my project in the .build file for Nant I have specified the references needed as follows:

<references> <include..... ./>  </references>

But this does not make the references output into the target build folder.

Will I need to move all references files for my .exe manually into its build folder?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Solved. Using MSBuild to compile the solution means that you dont need to give CSC the references. This also outputs all required files to the output bin folder.