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I'm trying to use the new FxCop analyzers, but they're only available as NuGet packages or as VSIX extensions. I'd like to be able to run them directly, either from inside a C# program or from the command line. Anyone have any advice? Even general info on where you can find the executables for NuGet or VSIX would help.
(I know about fxcopcmd.exe, but that's the legacy version, and it works only on built .exes or .dlls. If at all possible, I need something that works before building.)
Answering my own question in case anyone else has to deal with this. I found a solution, but fair warning, it's not pretty.
I took an example C# solution from Github, loaded it up in Visual Studio, and used NuGet to install the FxCop analyzers. This installed the analyzers, and changed the solution's .csproj files to reference them. In my case, I found a copy of the analyzers in C:\users\myname.nuget\packages.
I compared the modified .csproj files to the originals, to see what changes had been made during installation. I recommend anyone following along make this comparison themselves, but in my case, the changes were:
Five Import elements at the top referencing various .props files.
An empty NuGetPackageImportStamp element.
Two new ItemGroups near the bottom, the first containing a single element named "None", the second containing various Analyzer elements referencing .dlls.
A new Target to ensure that the .props files actually existed.
I wrote a C# program that took an arbitrary solution, found all the .csproj files inside, and manually added those new XML elements to them. I skipped the one-element ItemGroup and the Target without any problems.
Ideally you would then (from inside the same C# program) call msbuild on the .sln file, save every output line matching the regex "): warning CA\d\d\d\d: " (i.e. the warnings that FxCop generated), and restore the original .csproj files. I did that all manually. Here's the code for the XML manipulation, though:
static void addAnalyzersToCsProj(string file)
{
string[] packages = new string[]
{
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codeanalysis.fxcopanalyzers\3.0.0\build\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.FxCopAnalyzers.props",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codeanalysis.versioncheckanalyzer\3.0.0\build\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VersionCheckAnalyzer.props",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codequality.analyzers\3.0.0\build\Microsoft.CodeQuality.Analyzers.props",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netcore.analyzers\3.0.0\build\Microsoft.NetCore.Analyzers.props",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netframework.analyzers\3.0.0\build\Microsoft.NetFramework.Analyzers.props",
};
var root = XElement.Load(file);
var ns = "";
for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
XElement packageImport = new XElement(ns+"Import");
packageImport.SetAttributeValue("Project", packages[i]);
string condition = "Exists('" + packages[i] + "')";
packageImport.SetAttributeValue("Condition", condition);
root.AddFirst(packageImport);
}
var propertyGroup = root.Descendants(ns + "PropertyGroup").First();
var stamp = new XElement(ns+"NuGetPackageImportStamp", "");
propertyGroup.Elements().Last().AddAfterSelf(stamp);
var newGroup = new XElement(ns+"ItemGroup");
// do we need to include the "None Include="packages.config"" thing?
string[] libraries = new string[]
{
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codeanalysis.versioncheckanalyzer\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VersionCheckAnalyzer.resources.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codeanalysis.versioncheckanalyzer\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VersionCheckAnalyzer.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codequality.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Humanizer.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codequality.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.CodeQuality.Analyzers.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.codequality.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.CodeQuality.CSharp.Analyzers.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netcore.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.NetCore.Analyzers.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netcore.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.NetCore.CSharp.Analyzers.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netframework.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.NetFramework.Analyzers.dll",
#"C:\users\myname\.nuget\packages\microsoft.netframework.analyzers\3.0.0\analyzers\dotnet\cs\Microsoft.NetFramework.CSharp.Analyzers.dll",
};
foreach (string lib in libraries)
{
XElement analyzer = new XElement(ns+"Analyzer");
analyzer.SetAttributeValue("Include", lib);
newGroup.AddFirst(analyzer);
}
Console.WriteLine(root.Elements().Last().ToString());
root.Elements().Last().AddAfterSelf(newGroup);
root.Save(file, SaveOptions.None);
// and do we need to include the error checking target?
}
As far as I can tell, it works, though I have no idea what would happen if you tried to do it on a solution that already has the analyzers installed normally.
Running the FxCop analyzers through msbuild seems inefficient, but I haven't found a better way to do it. They look like they're built to only work within a compiler. I hope I'm wrong, and I would still appreciate any advice on how to run the analyzers automatically without having to build the whole project.
Is it possible to embed a pre-existing DLL into a compiled C# executable (so that you only have one file to distribute)? If it is possible, how would one go about doing it?
Normally, I'm cool with just leaving the DLLs outside and having the setup program handle everything, but there have been a couple of people at work who have asked me this and I honestly don't know.
I highly recommend to use Costura.Fody - by far the best and easiest way to embed resources in your assembly. It's available as NuGet package.
Install-Package Costura.Fody
After adding it to the project, it will automatically embed all references that are copied to the output directory into your main assembly. You might want to clean the embedded files by adding a target to your project:
Install-CleanReferencesTarget
You'll also be able to specify whether to include the pdb's, exclude certain assemblies, or extracting the assemblies on the fly. As far as I know, also unmanaged assemblies are supported.
Update
Currently, some people are trying to add support for DNX.
Update 2
For the lastest Fody version, you will need to have MSBuild 16 (so Visual Studio 2019). Fody version 4.2.1 will do MSBuild 15. (reference: Fody is only supported on MSBuild 16 and above. Current version: 15)
Just right-click your project in Visual Studio, choose Project Properties -> Resources -> Add Resource -> Add Existing File…
And include the code below to your App.xaml.cs or equivalent.
public App()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve +=new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
}
System.Reflection.Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
string dllName = args.Name.Contains(',') ? args.Name.Substring(0, args.Name.IndexOf(',')) : args.Name.Replace(".dll","");
dllName = dllName.Replace(".", "_");
if (dllName.EndsWith("_resources")) return null;
System.Resources.ResourceManager rm = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(GetType().Namespace + ".Properties.Resources", System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
byte[] bytes = (byte[])rm.GetObject(dllName);
return System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(bytes);
}
Here's my original blog post:
http://codeblog.larsholm.net/2011/06/embed-dlls-easily-in-a-net-assembly/
If they're actually managed assemblies, you can use ILMerge. For native DLLs, you'll have a bit more work to do.
See also: How can a C++ windows dll be merged into a C# application exe?
Yes, it is possible to merge .NET executables with libraries. There are multiple tools available to get the job done:
ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly.
Mono mkbundle, packages an exe and all assemblies with libmono into a single binary package.
IL-Repack is a FLOSS alterantive to ILMerge, with some additional features.
In addition this can be combined with the Mono Linker, which does remove unused code and therefor makes the resulting assembly smaller.
Another possibility is to use .NETZ, which does not only allow compressing of an assembly, but also can pack the dlls straight into the exe. The difference to the above mentioned solutions is that .NETZ does not merge them, they stay separate assemblies but are packed into one package.
.NETZ is a open source tool that compresses and packs the Microsoft .NET Framework executable (EXE, DLL) files in order to make them smaller.
ILMerge can combine assemblies to one single assembly provided the assembly has only managed code. You can use the commandline app, or add reference to the exe and programmatically merge. For a GUI version there is Eazfuscator, and also .Netz both of which are free. Paid apps include BoxedApp and SmartAssembly.
If you have to merge assemblies with unmanaged code, I would suggest SmartAssembly. I never had hiccups with SmartAssembly but with all others. Here, it can embed the required dependencies as resources to your main exe.
You can do all this manually not needing to worry if assembly is managed or in mixed mode by embedding dll to your resources and then relying on AppDomain's Assembly ResolveHandler. This is a one stop solution by adopting the worst case, ie assemblies with unmanaged code.
static void Main()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
{
string assemblyName = new AssemblyName(args.Name).Name;
if (assemblyName.EndsWith(".resources"))
return null;
string dllName = assemblyName + ".dll";
string dllFullPath = Path.Combine(GetMyApplicationSpecificPath(), dllName);
using (Stream s = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(typeof(Program).Namespace + ".Resources." + dllName))
{
byte[] data = new byte[stream.Length];
s.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
//or just byte[] data = new BinaryReader(s).ReadBytes((int)s.Length);
File.WriteAllBytes(dllFullPath, data);
}
return Assembly.LoadFrom(dllFullPath);
};
}
The key here is to write the bytes to a file and load from its location. To avoid chicken and egg problem, you have to ensure you declare the handler before accessing assembly and that you do not access the assembly members (or instantiate anything that has to deal with the assembly) inside the loading (assembly resolving) part. Also take care to ensure GetMyApplicationSpecificPath() is not any temp directory since temp files could be attempted to get erased by other programs or by yourself (not that it will get deleted while your program is accessing the dll, but at least its a nuisance. AppData is good location). Also note that you have to write the bytes each time, you cant load from location just 'cos the dll already resides there.
For managed dlls, you need not write bytes, but directly load from the location of the dll, or just read the bytes and load the assembly from memory. Like this or so:
using (Stream s = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(typeof(Program).Namespace + ".Resources." + dllName))
{
byte[] data = new byte[stream.Length];
s.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
return Assembly.Load(data);
}
//or just
return Assembly.LoadFrom(dllFullPath); //if location is known.
If the assembly is fully unmanaged, you can see this link or this as to how to load such dlls.
.NET Core 3.0 natively supports compiling to a single .exe
The feature is enabled by the usage of the following property in your project file (.csproj):
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>
This is done without any external tool.
See my answer for this question for further details.
The excerpt by Jeffrey Richter is very good. In short, add the libraries as embedded resources and add a callback before anything else. Here is a version of the code (found in the comments of his page) that I put at the start of Main method for a console app (just make sure that any calls that use the libraries are in a different method to Main).
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, bargs) =>
{
String dllName = new AssemblyName(bargs.Name).Name + ".dll";
var assem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
String resourceName = assem.GetManifestResourceNames().FirstOrDefault(rn => rn.EndsWith(dllName));
if (resourceName == null) return null; // Not found, maybe another handler will find it
using (var stream = assem.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
{
Byte[] assemblyData = new Byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyData, 0, assemblyData.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyData);
}
};
To expand on #Bobby's asnwer above. You can edit your .csproj to use IL-Repack to automatically package all files into a single assembly when you build.
Install the nuget ILRepack.MSBuild.Task package with Install-Package ILRepack.MSBuild.Task
Edit the AfterBuild section of your .csproj
Here is a simple sample that merges ExampleAssemblyToMerge.dll into your project output.
<!-- ILRepack -->
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
<ItemGroup>
<InputAssemblies Include="$(OutputPath)\$(AssemblyName).exe" />
<InputAssemblies Include="$(OutputPath)\ExampleAssemblyToMerge.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<ILRepack
Parallel="true"
Internalize="true"
InputAssemblies="#(InputAssemblies)"
TargetKind="Exe"
OutputFile="$(OutputPath)\$(AssemblyName).exe"
/>
</Target>
The following method DO NOT use external tools and AUTOMATICALLY include all needed DLL (no manual action required, everything done at compilation)
I read a lot of answer here saying to use ILMerge, ILRepack or Jeffrey Ritcher method but none of that worked with WPF applications nor was easy to use.
When you have a lot of DLL it can be hard to manually include the one you need in your exe. The best method i found was explained by Wegged here on StackOverflow
Copy pasted his answer here for clarity (all credit to Wegged)
1) Add this to your .csproj file:
<Target Name="AfterResolveReferences">
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Extension)' == '.dll'">
<LogicalName>%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.DestinationSubDirectory)%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Filename)%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Extension)</LogicalName>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
2) Make your Main Program.cs look like this:
[STAThreadAttribute]
public static void Main()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += OnResolveAssembly;
App.Main();
}
3) Add the OnResolveAssembly method:
private static Assembly OnResolveAssembly(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
Assembly executingAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
AssemblyName assemblyName = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
var path = assemblyName.Name + ".dll";
if (assemblyName.CultureInfo.Equals(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) == false) path = String.Format(#"{0}\{1}", assemblyName.CultureInfo, path);
using (Stream stream = executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(path))
{
if (stream == null) return null;
var assemblyRawBytes = new byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyRawBytes, 0, assemblyRawBytes.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyRawBytes);
}
}
You could add the DLLs as embedded resources, and then have your program unpack them into the application directory on startup (after checking to see if they're there already).
Setup files are so easy to make, though, that I don't think this would be worth it.
EDIT: This technique would be easy with .NET assemblies. With non-.NET DLLs it would be a lot more work (you'd have to figure out where to unpack the files and register them and so on).
Another product that can handle this elegantly is SmartAssembly, at SmartAssembly.com. This product will, in addition to merging all dependencies into a single DLL, (optionally) obfuscate your code, remove extra meta-data to reduce the resulting file size, and can also actually optimize the IL to increase runtime performance.
There is also some kind of global exception handling/reporting feature it adds to your software (if desired) that could be useful. I believe it also has a command-line API so you can make it part of your build process.
Neither the ILMerge approach nor Lars Holm Jensen's handling the AssemblyResolve event will work for a plugin host. Say executable H loads assembly P dynamically and accesses it via interface IP defined in an separate assembly. To embed IP into H one shall need a little modification to Lars's code:
Dictionary<string, Assembly> loaded = new Dictionary<string,Assembly>();
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
{ Assembly resAssembly;
string dllName = args.Name.Contains(",") ? args.Name.Substring(0, args.Name.IndexOf(',')) : args.Name.Replace(".dll","");
dllName = dllName.Replace(".", "_");
if ( !loaded.ContainsKey( dllName ) )
{ if (dllName.EndsWith("_resources")) return null;
System.Resources.ResourceManager rm = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(GetType().Namespace + ".Properties.Resources", System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
byte[] bytes = (byte[])rm.GetObject(dllName);
resAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(bytes);
loaded.Add(dllName, resAssembly);
}
else
{ resAssembly = loaded[dllName]; }
return resAssembly;
};
The trick to handle repeated attempts to resolve the same assembly and return the existing one instead of creating a new instance.
EDIT:
Lest it spoil .NET's serialization, make sure to return null for all assemblies not embedded in yours, thereby defaulting to the standard behaviour. You can get a list of these libraries by:
static HashSet<string> IncludedAssemblies = new HashSet<string>();
string[] resources = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
for(int i = 0; i < resources.Length; i++)
{ IncludedAssemblies.Add(resources[i]); }
and just return null if the passed assembly does not belong to IncludedAssemblies .
It may sound simplistic, but WinRar gives the option to compress a bunch of files to a self-extracting executable.
It has lots of configurable options: final icon, extract files to given path, file to execute after extraction, custom logo/texts for popup shown during extraction, no popup window at all, license agreement text, etc.
May be useful in some cases.
I use the csc.exe compiler called from a .vbs script.
In your xyz.cs script, add the following lines after the directives (my example is for the Renci SSH):
using System;
using Renci;//FOR THE SSH
using System.Net;//FOR THE ADDRESS TRANSLATION
using System.Reflection;//FOR THE Assembly
//+ref>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\ILMerge\Renci.SshNet.dll"
//+res>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\ILMerge\Renci.SshNet.dll"
//+ico>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft CAPICOM 2.1.0.2 SDK\Samples\c_sharp\xmldsig\resources\Traffic.ico"
The ref, res and ico tags will be picked up by the .vbs script below to form the csc command.
Then add the assembly resolver caller in the Main:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
.
...and add the resolver itself somewhere in the class:
static Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
String resourceName = new AssemblyName(args.Name).Name + ".dll";
using (var stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
{
Byte[] assemblyData = new Byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyData, 0, assemblyData.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyData);
}
}
I name the vbs script to match the .cs filename (e.g. ssh.vbs looks for ssh.cs); this makes running the script numerous times a lot easier, but if you aren't an idiot like me then a generic script could pick up the target .cs file from a drag-and-drop:
Dim name_,oShell,fso
Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
'TAKE THE VBS SCRIPT NAME AS THE TARGET FILE NAME
'################################################
name_ = Split(wscript.ScriptName, ".")(0)
'GET THE EXTERNAL DLL's AND ICON NAMES FROM THE .CS FILE
'#######################################################
Const OPEN_FILE_FOR_READING = 1
Set objInputFile = fso.OpenTextFile(name_ & ".cs", 1)
'READ EVERYTHING INTO AN ARRAY
'#############################
inputData = Split(objInputFile.ReadAll, vbNewline)
For each strData In inputData
if left(strData,7)="//+ref>" then
csc_references = csc_references & " /reference:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+ref>","")) & " "
end if
if left(strData,7)="//+res>" then
csc_resources = csc_resources & " /resource:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+res>","")) & " "
end if
if left(strData,7)="//+ico>" then
csc_icon = " /win32icon:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+ico>","")) & " "
end if
Next
objInputFile.Close
'COMPILE THE FILE
'################
oShell.ShellExecute "c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v3.5\csc.exe", "/warn:1 /target:exe " & csc_references & csc_resources & csc_icon & " " & name_ & ".cs", "", "runas", 2
WScript.Quit(0)
If you are using .NET Core 3.0
You can do this with the dotnet publish command with PublishSingleFile property:
dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release /p:PublishSingleFile=true
The only downside is you end up with a single EXE file with a huge size.
It's possible but not all that easy, to create a hybrid native/managed assembly in C#. Were you using C++ instead it'd be a lot easier, as the Visual C++ compiler can create hybrid assemblies as easily as anything else.
Unless you have a strict requirement to produce a hybrid assembly, I'd agree with MusiGenesis that this isn't really worth the trouble to do with C#. If you need to do it, perhaps look at moving to C++/CLI instead.
Generally you would need some form of post build tool to perform an assembly merge like you are describing. There is a free tool called Eazfuscator (eazfuscator.blogspot.com/) which is designed for bytecode mangling that also handles assembly merging. You can add this into a post build command line with Visual Studio to merge your assemblies, but your mileage will vary due to issues that will arise in any non trival assembly merging scenarios.
You could also check to see if the build make untility NANT has the ability to merge assemblies after building, but I am not familiar enough with NANT myself to say whether the functionality is built in or not.
There are also many many Visual Studio plugins that will perform assembly merging as part of building the application.
Alternatively if you don't need this to be done automatically, there are a number of tools like ILMerge that will merge .net assemblies into a single file.
The biggest issue I've had with merging assemblies is if they use any similar namespaces. Or worse, reference different versions of the same dll (my problems were generally with the NUnit dll files).
Try this:
https://github.com/ytk2128/dll-merger
here you can merge all 32 bit dlls/exe - even its not ".net" dlls - so for me better then ilmerge for example ...
I am working on writing some new build scripts for a few of our applications, the current scripts build all projects in place with MSBuild and then manually copy all of the content (views, scripts, etc...) and the bin folder manually to an artifacts folder to be zipped; this requires that all files and folders that aren't part of the bin directory for an ASP.NET project to be explicitly listed in a configuration file which is of course immensely error prone.
Is there a way using MSBuild when specifying the output directory to also include the content files? Ideally this would be done without creating a publish profile as the current deployment method is not open to change so I need to make sure my build artifact matches the current one.
If it helps I am planning to use Cake for the build mechanism.
Utilizing cake I was able to come up with a somewhat messy solution :
var excludedFiles = new List<string>{"Settings.settings", "packages.config"};
var artifactDir = "./Artifact";
var solutionFile = "./MySolution.sln";
Task("Package")
.IsDependentOn("Build")
.Does(() =>
{
var solution = ParseSolution(solutionFile);
foreach (var project in solution.Projects)
{
var parsedProject = ParseProject(project.Path);
var binDir = project.Path.GetDirectory() + Directory("/bin");
if(project.Name.Contains("Host"))
{
var soaDir = Directory(artifactDir + "/SOA");
CreateDirectory(soaDir);
CopyDirectory(binDir, soaDir + Directory("bin"));
foreach(var file in parsedProject.Files)
{
if(!file.Compile && excludedFiles.All(x=> !file.FilePath.ToString().Contains(x)))
{
var newFilePath = soaDir + File(file.RelativePath);
CreateDirectory(((FilePath)newFilePath).GetDirectory());
CopyFile(file.FilePath, newFilePath);
}
}
}
}
});
The package task here will parse in the solution a loop through the projects to find any that contain the word Host is their names; this is how all of our web apps are named so for us it is safe but could definitely be improved.
Once we've identified the ASP.NET project we copy its bin contents and then loop through its files to find any that are not marked for compilation and excluded some specific files like the settings file and the nuget packages config file.
Finally we are able to use that files relative path to copy the file into the artifact directory.
Is it possible to embed a pre-existing DLL into a compiled C# executable (so that you only have one file to distribute)? If it is possible, how would one go about doing it?
Normally, I'm cool with just leaving the DLLs outside and having the setup program handle everything, but there have been a couple of people at work who have asked me this and I honestly don't know.
I highly recommend to use Costura.Fody - by far the best and easiest way to embed resources in your assembly. It's available as NuGet package.
Install-Package Costura.Fody
After adding it to the project, it will automatically embed all references that are copied to the output directory into your main assembly. You might want to clean the embedded files by adding a target to your project:
Install-CleanReferencesTarget
You'll also be able to specify whether to include the pdb's, exclude certain assemblies, or extracting the assemblies on the fly. As far as I know, also unmanaged assemblies are supported.
Update
Currently, some people are trying to add support for DNX.
Update 2
For the lastest Fody version, you will need to have MSBuild 16 (so Visual Studio 2019). Fody version 4.2.1 will do MSBuild 15. (reference: Fody is only supported on MSBuild 16 and above. Current version: 15)
Just right-click your project in Visual Studio, choose Project Properties -> Resources -> Add Resource -> Add Existing File…
And include the code below to your App.xaml.cs or equivalent.
public App()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve +=new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
}
System.Reflection.Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
string dllName = args.Name.Contains(',') ? args.Name.Substring(0, args.Name.IndexOf(',')) : args.Name.Replace(".dll","");
dllName = dllName.Replace(".", "_");
if (dllName.EndsWith("_resources")) return null;
System.Resources.ResourceManager rm = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(GetType().Namespace + ".Properties.Resources", System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
byte[] bytes = (byte[])rm.GetObject(dllName);
return System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(bytes);
}
Here's my original blog post:
http://codeblog.larsholm.net/2011/06/embed-dlls-easily-in-a-net-assembly/
If they're actually managed assemblies, you can use ILMerge. For native DLLs, you'll have a bit more work to do.
See also: How can a C++ windows dll be merged into a C# application exe?
Yes, it is possible to merge .NET executables with libraries. There are multiple tools available to get the job done:
ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly.
Mono mkbundle, packages an exe and all assemblies with libmono into a single binary package.
IL-Repack is a FLOSS alterantive to ILMerge, with some additional features.
In addition this can be combined with the Mono Linker, which does remove unused code and therefor makes the resulting assembly smaller.
Another possibility is to use .NETZ, which does not only allow compressing of an assembly, but also can pack the dlls straight into the exe. The difference to the above mentioned solutions is that .NETZ does not merge them, they stay separate assemblies but are packed into one package.
.NETZ is a open source tool that compresses and packs the Microsoft .NET Framework executable (EXE, DLL) files in order to make them smaller.
ILMerge can combine assemblies to one single assembly provided the assembly has only managed code. You can use the commandline app, or add reference to the exe and programmatically merge. For a GUI version there is Eazfuscator, and also .Netz both of which are free. Paid apps include BoxedApp and SmartAssembly.
If you have to merge assemblies with unmanaged code, I would suggest SmartAssembly. I never had hiccups with SmartAssembly but with all others. Here, it can embed the required dependencies as resources to your main exe.
You can do all this manually not needing to worry if assembly is managed or in mixed mode by embedding dll to your resources and then relying on AppDomain's Assembly ResolveHandler. This is a one stop solution by adopting the worst case, ie assemblies with unmanaged code.
static void Main()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
{
string assemblyName = new AssemblyName(args.Name).Name;
if (assemblyName.EndsWith(".resources"))
return null;
string dllName = assemblyName + ".dll";
string dllFullPath = Path.Combine(GetMyApplicationSpecificPath(), dllName);
using (Stream s = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(typeof(Program).Namespace + ".Resources." + dllName))
{
byte[] data = new byte[stream.Length];
s.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
//or just byte[] data = new BinaryReader(s).ReadBytes((int)s.Length);
File.WriteAllBytes(dllFullPath, data);
}
return Assembly.LoadFrom(dllFullPath);
};
}
The key here is to write the bytes to a file and load from its location. To avoid chicken and egg problem, you have to ensure you declare the handler before accessing assembly and that you do not access the assembly members (or instantiate anything that has to deal with the assembly) inside the loading (assembly resolving) part. Also take care to ensure GetMyApplicationSpecificPath() is not any temp directory since temp files could be attempted to get erased by other programs or by yourself (not that it will get deleted while your program is accessing the dll, but at least its a nuisance. AppData is good location). Also note that you have to write the bytes each time, you cant load from location just 'cos the dll already resides there.
For managed dlls, you need not write bytes, but directly load from the location of the dll, or just read the bytes and load the assembly from memory. Like this or so:
using (Stream s = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(typeof(Program).Namespace + ".Resources." + dllName))
{
byte[] data = new byte[stream.Length];
s.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
return Assembly.Load(data);
}
//or just
return Assembly.LoadFrom(dllFullPath); //if location is known.
If the assembly is fully unmanaged, you can see this link or this as to how to load such dlls.
.NET Core 3.0 natively supports compiling to a single .exe
The feature is enabled by the usage of the following property in your project file (.csproj):
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
</PropertyGroup>
This is done without any external tool.
See my answer for this question for further details.
The excerpt by Jeffrey Richter is very good. In short, add the libraries as embedded resources and add a callback before anything else. Here is a version of the code (found in the comments of his page) that I put at the start of Main method for a console app (just make sure that any calls that use the libraries are in a different method to Main).
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, bargs) =>
{
String dllName = new AssemblyName(bargs.Name).Name + ".dll";
var assem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
String resourceName = assem.GetManifestResourceNames().FirstOrDefault(rn => rn.EndsWith(dllName));
if (resourceName == null) return null; // Not found, maybe another handler will find it
using (var stream = assem.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
{
Byte[] assemblyData = new Byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyData, 0, assemblyData.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyData);
}
};
To expand on #Bobby's asnwer above. You can edit your .csproj to use IL-Repack to automatically package all files into a single assembly when you build.
Install the nuget ILRepack.MSBuild.Task package with Install-Package ILRepack.MSBuild.Task
Edit the AfterBuild section of your .csproj
Here is a simple sample that merges ExampleAssemblyToMerge.dll into your project output.
<!-- ILRepack -->
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
<ItemGroup>
<InputAssemblies Include="$(OutputPath)\$(AssemblyName).exe" />
<InputAssemblies Include="$(OutputPath)\ExampleAssemblyToMerge.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<ILRepack
Parallel="true"
Internalize="true"
InputAssemblies="#(InputAssemblies)"
TargetKind="Exe"
OutputFile="$(OutputPath)\$(AssemblyName).exe"
/>
</Target>
The following method DO NOT use external tools and AUTOMATICALLY include all needed DLL (no manual action required, everything done at compilation)
I read a lot of answer here saying to use ILMerge, ILRepack or Jeffrey Ritcher method but none of that worked with WPF applications nor was easy to use.
When you have a lot of DLL it can be hard to manually include the one you need in your exe. The best method i found was explained by Wegged here on StackOverflow
Copy pasted his answer here for clarity (all credit to Wegged)
1) Add this to your .csproj file:
<Target Name="AfterResolveReferences">
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Extension)' == '.dll'">
<LogicalName>%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.DestinationSubDirectory)%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Filename)%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Extension)</LogicalName>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
2) Make your Main Program.cs look like this:
[STAThreadAttribute]
public static void Main()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += OnResolveAssembly;
App.Main();
}
3) Add the OnResolveAssembly method:
private static Assembly OnResolveAssembly(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
Assembly executingAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
AssemblyName assemblyName = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
var path = assemblyName.Name + ".dll";
if (assemblyName.CultureInfo.Equals(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) == false) path = String.Format(#"{0}\{1}", assemblyName.CultureInfo, path);
using (Stream stream = executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(path))
{
if (stream == null) return null;
var assemblyRawBytes = new byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyRawBytes, 0, assemblyRawBytes.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyRawBytes);
}
}
You could add the DLLs as embedded resources, and then have your program unpack them into the application directory on startup (after checking to see if they're there already).
Setup files are so easy to make, though, that I don't think this would be worth it.
EDIT: This technique would be easy with .NET assemblies. With non-.NET DLLs it would be a lot more work (you'd have to figure out where to unpack the files and register them and so on).
Another product that can handle this elegantly is SmartAssembly, at SmartAssembly.com. This product will, in addition to merging all dependencies into a single DLL, (optionally) obfuscate your code, remove extra meta-data to reduce the resulting file size, and can also actually optimize the IL to increase runtime performance.
There is also some kind of global exception handling/reporting feature it adds to your software (if desired) that could be useful. I believe it also has a command-line API so you can make it part of your build process.
Neither the ILMerge approach nor Lars Holm Jensen's handling the AssemblyResolve event will work for a plugin host. Say executable H loads assembly P dynamically and accesses it via interface IP defined in an separate assembly. To embed IP into H one shall need a little modification to Lars's code:
Dictionary<string, Assembly> loaded = new Dictionary<string,Assembly>();
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
{ Assembly resAssembly;
string dllName = args.Name.Contains(",") ? args.Name.Substring(0, args.Name.IndexOf(',')) : args.Name.Replace(".dll","");
dllName = dllName.Replace(".", "_");
if ( !loaded.ContainsKey( dllName ) )
{ if (dllName.EndsWith("_resources")) return null;
System.Resources.ResourceManager rm = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(GetType().Namespace + ".Properties.Resources", System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
byte[] bytes = (byte[])rm.GetObject(dllName);
resAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(bytes);
loaded.Add(dllName, resAssembly);
}
else
{ resAssembly = loaded[dllName]; }
return resAssembly;
};
The trick to handle repeated attempts to resolve the same assembly and return the existing one instead of creating a new instance.
EDIT:
Lest it spoil .NET's serialization, make sure to return null for all assemblies not embedded in yours, thereby defaulting to the standard behaviour. You can get a list of these libraries by:
static HashSet<string> IncludedAssemblies = new HashSet<string>();
string[] resources = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
for(int i = 0; i < resources.Length; i++)
{ IncludedAssemblies.Add(resources[i]); }
and just return null if the passed assembly does not belong to IncludedAssemblies .
It may sound simplistic, but WinRar gives the option to compress a bunch of files to a self-extracting executable.
It has lots of configurable options: final icon, extract files to given path, file to execute after extraction, custom logo/texts for popup shown during extraction, no popup window at all, license agreement text, etc.
May be useful in some cases.
I use the csc.exe compiler called from a .vbs script.
In your xyz.cs script, add the following lines after the directives (my example is for the Renci SSH):
using System;
using Renci;//FOR THE SSH
using System.Net;//FOR THE ADDRESS TRANSLATION
using System.Reflection;//FOR THE Assembly
//+ref>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\ILMerge\Renci.SshNet.dll"
//+res>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\ILMerge\Renci.SshNet.dll"
//+ico>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft CAPICOM 2.1.0.2 SDK\Samples\c_sharp\xmldsig\resources\Traffic.ico"
The ref, res and ico tags will be picked up by the .vbs script below to form the csc command.
Then add the assembly resolver caller in the Main:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
.
...and add the resolver itself somewhere in the class:
static Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
String resourceName = new AssemblyName(args.Name).Name + ".dll";
using (var stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
{
Byte[] assemblyData = new Byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyData, 0, assemblyData.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyData);
}
}
I name the vbs script to match the .cs filename (e.g. ssh.vbs looks for ssh.cs); this makes running the script numerous times a lot easier, but if you aren't an idiot like me then a generic script could pick up the target .cs file from a drag-and-drop:
Dim name_,oShell,fso
Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
'TAKE THE VBS SCRIPT NAME AS THE TARGET FILE NAME
'################################################
name_ = Split(wscript.ScriptName, ".")(0)
'GET THE EXTERNAL DLL's AND ICON NAMES FROM THE .CS FILE
'#######################################################
Const OPEN_FILE_FOR_READING = 1
Set objInputFile = fso.OpenTextFile(name_ & ".cs", 1)
'READ EVERYTHING INTO AN ARRAY
'#############################
inputData = Split(objInputFile.ReadAll, vbNewline)
For each strData In inputData
if left(strData,7)="//+ref>" then
csc_references = csc_references & " /reference:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+ref>","")) & " "
end if
if left(strData,7)="//+res>" then
csc_resources = csc_resources & " /resource:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+res>","")) & " "
end if
if left(strData,7)="//+ico>" then
csc_icon = " /win32icon:" & trim(replace(strData,"//+ico>","")) & " "
end if
Next
objInputFile.Close
'COMPILE THE FILE
'################
oShell.ShellExecute "c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v3.5\csc.exe", "/warn:1 /target:exe " & csc_references & csc_resources & csc_icon & " " & name_ & ".cs", "", "runas", 2
WScript.Quit(0)
If you are using .NET Core 3.0
You can do this with the dotnet publish command with PublishSingleFile property:
dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release /p:PublishSingleFile=true
The only downside is you end up with a single EXE file with a huge size.
It's possible but not all that easy, to create a hybrid native/managed assembly in C#. Were you using C++ instead it'd be a lot easier, as the Visual C++ compiler can create hybrid assemblies as easily as anything else.
Unless you have a strict requirement to produce a hybrid assembly, I'd agree with MusiGenesis that this isn't really worth the trouble to do with C#. If you need to do it, perhaps look at moving to C++/CLI instead.
Generally you would need some form of post build tool to perform an assembly merge like you are describing. There is a free tool called Eazfuscator (eazfuscator.blogspot.com/) which is designed for bytecode mangling that also handles assembly merging. You can add this into a post build command line with Visual Studio to merge your assemblies, but your mileage will vary due to issues that will arise in any non trival assembly merging scenarios.
You could also check to see if the build make untility NANT has the ability to merge assemblies after building, but I am not familiar enough with NANT myself to say whether the functionality is built in or not.
There are also many many Visual Studio plugins that will perform assembly merging as part of building the application.
Alternatively if you don't need this to be done automatically, there are a number of tools like ILMerge that will merge .net assemblies into a single file.
The biggest issue I've had with merging assemblies is if they use any similar namespaces. Or worse, reference different versions of the same dll (my problems were generally with the NUnit dll files).
Try this:
https://github.com/ytk2128/dll-merger
here you can merge all 32 bit dlls/exe - even its not ".net" dlls - so for me better then ilmerge for example ...
Is there a way to find out the assembly name at design-time (i.e. not using reflection or runtime APIs such as System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly) from within Visual Studio?
The scenario requires a tool to get the assembly name that a Visual Studio project will eventually compile into.
This is like parsing the AssemblyName property of the .csproj - I am wondering if there are any APIs that can give this information reliably.
Please do not respond back with runtime APIs that use reflection - there is no assembly file present at the time I need the assembly name - just the metadata of the assembly in the csproj file.
if you are calling the tool via a post/pre-build event, this data is very easy to access.
Just go to the "project properties->Build Events" tab, then select either "edit pre-build" or "edit post-build", depending on when you want the tool to run. This should bring up an edit window with the ever helpful "Macros >>" button. Press this and you will be given a heap of macros to use and should be pretty much everything you need.
The "API" you could use is LINQ to XML after all the .csproj file is just xml. (and you can get the location of the .csproj file if you need from the solution file which for some reason is not XML but can be easily parsed)
You can use "TargetName" available in Macros for Post-build events. It will give you the assembly name for your project.
After a quick run through MSDN I found this article which might be a good start for some further research:
Accessing Project Type Specific Project, Project Item, and Configuration Properties
I think you will need to write some regular expression that will give you the value of "AssemblyTitle" attribute in AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Something like this:
public class Assembly
{
public static string GetTitle (string fileFullName) {
var contents = File.ReadAllText (fileFullName); //may raise exception if file doesn't exist
//regex string is: AssemblyTitle\x20*\(\x20*"(?<Title>.*)"\x20*\)
//loading from settings because it is annoying to type it in editor
var reg = new Regex (Settings.Default.Expression);
var match = reg.Match (contents);
var titleGroup = match.Groups["Title"];
return (match.Success && titleGroup.Success) ? titleGroup.Value : String.Empty;
}
}