How to add assembly manifest to a C# .NET class library project in Visual Studio 2008?

Question

I'm having a similar problem to what Paul had a year ago (see How to add manifest to a .NET DLL?). That is, I have a C# class library project in Visual Studio 2008, which outputs a dll. The dll references some private assemblies, so I want to add an assembly manifest to the dll that specifies those other referenced assemblies.

I know how to do this for an executable, it's just appName.exe.manifest, and when the file is included in the project, you can then just select it as the manifest in the project properties.

According to the answer that Ruben gave Paul (in the above Stack Overflow thread), a manifest only applies to exes. However, the Microsoft documentation on manifests seems to suggest otherwise (correct me if I'm wrong), MSDN Assembly Manifests:

An assembly manifest is an XML file that describes a side-by-side assembly. Assembly manifests describe the names and versions of side-by-side assemblies, files, and resources of the assembly, as well as the dependence of the assembly on other side-by-side assemblies. Correct installation, activation, and execution of side-by-side assemblies requires that the assembly manifest always accompany an assembly on the system.

Because of the way side-by-side searches for private assemblies, the following naming restrictions apply when packaging a DLL as a private assembly. A recommended way of doing this is to put the assembly manifest in the DLL as a resource. In this case, the resource ID must equal 1 and the name of the private assembly may be the same as the name of the DLL. For example, if the name of the DLL is Microsoft.Windows.mysample.dll, the value of the name attribute used in the assemblyIdentity element of the manifest may also be Microsoft.Windows.mysample.

An alternate way is to put the assembly manifest in a separate file. In this case, the name of the assembly and its manifest must be different than the name of the DLL. For example, Microsoft.Windows.mysampleAsm, Microsoft.Windows.mysampleAsm.manifest, and Microsoft.Windows.Mysample.dll

So I created an assembly manifest assemblyName.manifest as a separate file, and included it in the class library project. But when I go to the properties for the project, I get the same result that Paul did, the option to use your own manifest is disabled.

Am I doing something wrong? How do I add my manifest to the assembly?

Answer 1

What you quoted is quite inappropriate for .NET assemblies. The Windows side-by-side cache is for unmanaged DLLs, the exact equivalent in .NET is the GAC. Furthermore, the compiler already embeds references to the dependent assemblies in the assembly manifest. You can see it if you run Ildasm.exe on your assembly. Double-click the manifest, you'll see the .assembly directives listed.

Fwiw, embedding your own Windows manifest in a class library is not a problem. Just use Project + Add New Item and select the Application Manifest File template item. The auto-generated content is completely wrong for a DLL of course but it does get embedded in the DLL. You can see that by using File + Open + File and selecting your assembly. You'll see the RT_MANIFEST with resource ID 2. Just to reiterate: don't do this for a managed DLL unless you want to enter reg-free COM directives.