What scenarios are possible where the VS C# compiler would not compile a reference of a reference?

Question

Hello,

I'm probably asking this question wrong (and that may be why Google isn't helping), but here goes:

In Visual Studio I am compiling a C# project (let's call it Project A, the startup project) which has a reference to Project B. Project B has a reference to a Project C, so when A gets built, the dlls for B gets placed in the bin directory of A, as does the dll for C (because B requires C, and A requires B). However, I have apparently made some change recently so that the dll for Project C does not go into the bin directory of Project A when rebuilding the solution. I have no idea what I've done to make this happen.

I have not modified the setup of the solution itself, and I have only added additional references to the project files. Code wise, I have commented out most of the actual code in Project B that references classes in Project C, but did not remove the reference from the project itself (I don't think this matters). I was told that perhaps the C# compiler was optimizing somehow so that it was not building Project C, but really I'm out of ideas. I would think someone has run into something similar before

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can right click on the solution in the solution explorer, and check your project dependencies.

My guess is that, somehow, you've flagged that B doesn't rely on C.

Alternatively: In the solution properties, make sure that the current Configuration is set to build Project C.

Answer 2

Have you changed your build configuration? In Visual Studio 2008, the default Solution Configurations are Debug and Release while the default Solution Platform is Any CPU. My experience suggests the Solution Configuration/Platform pair has a unique build configuration. In other words, Debug/Any CPU and Release/Any CPU are two independent build configurations, each with their own settings. If you've selected a different configuration, the settings for the original configuration do not automatically apply; you'll need to set the dependencies for all of your configurations, as well as any new projects you add to your solution, in order to seemlessly switch between them.