I've created a basic console app in Visual Studio 2008, which references an external assembly.
When I publish and install the project, both the executable and the external assembly are installed in the target folder.
Is it possible to compile the project, and have all referenced assemblies included in the main executable - so there is only one file to distribute?
Thanks for any help,
Franko
You can use ILMerge to merge the assemblies for deployment. This lets you keep them separate during development, but put them all into one .exe file when you ship.
You can use ILMerge from Microsoft for this, or the Cecil tool from the Mono project.
You can create a setup file. so you can redistribute only one file.
But it still going to be installed into a folder with each assembly separated.
You can also consider placing your assemblies into the GAC.
If you find ILMerge is not enough because your app needs files other than .net assemblies, I have found that packaging it as self extracting exe using MakeSFX works nicely. It sounds unlikely but with correct command line flags the self extracting bit is completely transparent and it runs just like any other application.
Related
I've never done this before, because I've never needed to until now, but I need to build my windows forms application to a standalone executable. I'm aware of both Build and Publish options within Visual Studio however none do what I need. Build doesn't allow you to move the executable it makes, and Publish makes a setup to install on the computer.
My goal is for the application to open without installation.
In the /bin/Debug/ directory made by the Build option, I have an executable, four dlls required, two .pdb file, and few other standard files (.manifest, .config, etc.). I was hoping to get any requirements built inside the executable.
How do I do this? All my searching has taken me to bunch of tutorials on how to make applications from scratch and how to use the csc.exe console command.
You can merge the separate assemblies to make it one single executable.
There is a tool called ILMerge that is capable of doing that for you. Another method is described in this post, which also works for WPF.
What you want is to embed the .DLLs in the .exe file so you can move it freely and only need the .exe , you just didn't search for the right thing,
here is what you are looking for :
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.
See : Embedding DLLs in a compiled executable
this is indeed a duplicate but i don't have the reputation to mark it as so.
I have a console application built in visual studio 2010.
When I actually build the project I am getting .exe file under \bin\Debug\MyProj.exe.
When I Paste and run this .exe from other location it is expecting other files too.
Any thoughts how can I make this as Stand alone exe file.
There should be other DLL's in the Debug library. You need those to run your exe.
If there are no DLL's there, make sure you set the 'Copy local' property of the required references to True, and build again.
If you want to make a standalone program, you should create a new Setup project in your solution. Include the Primary Output from your application project, and the setup should include the required DLL's automatically. Once you build the setup project, you can install your application as a standalone software.
You usually distribute application with bunch of DLLs, that's nothing bad.
But if you really want to make it a single exe, you can look here - same question is answered Embed .net dll in c# .exe . (Valid if your DLLs are also .Net assemblies)
Edit: If you need to easily distribute app to not-very-computer-friendly users, consider also trying ClickOnce. It's roughly something like Java Web start - only disadvantage is that you can't get "Windows Logo" certificate from Microsoft for projects distributed that way.
I don't have Visual Studio 2010 to experiment with, but in Visual Studio 2019 this worked:
Project Properties->Configuration Properties->Advanced->Use of MFC->Use MFC in a Static Library
I am setting up an installer project for a C# solution and I encounter a dependency problem:
In my solution, I have 4 independent project outputs – one windows service and three executables, who all share between them some references.
I need the installer to install all four of them in order for the solution to work.
I've set up an installation folder for each project output under "Application folder" in the "File system on target machine" dialog, added the project output of the windows service successfully in its folder. But when I continue to try and add the executables' project outputs in their folders the assemblies already carried into the windows service folder are not carried into the executable folder, and following the installation the executables won't run as they are missing dependencies.
I can manually add the missing assemblies to the executables' folders, but it seems that this is not how it should be done and there's something I'm missing.
Any ideas?
Well you should create a new project in the solution, and set the "installer" to be the output of your main application (or main applications) it should solve the dependencies itself.
I was having what I think is the problem that was originally described. I have a Winform app and a console application as two separate projects, but a single setup project handles both.
Both the Winform app and the console app use the same two external assemblies: one not part of the solution (reference to a file in a folder), and the other from a C# class project (reference to the project).
What I have found is that the installer assumes that the project output is all combined into a single folder on the installation machine. Therefore, all of the common assemblies will also co-reside with the executables that need them. So if you add the project output from the first executable into the folder, that is why you see all its dependencies appear, and then when the second project output is added, only the assemblies not already added will appear.
It doesn't matter if you create subfolders under the Application folder, Visual Studio appears to treat the Application Folder as a whole unit... as far as Project Output (exe, dll and res) are concerned.
There are two ways to solve this. The first is to create a separate installation project for each executable. In a large project, this could be a lot of setup projects.
If you want to keep everything in a single installation, a better option is to use the GAC for the shared assemblies, which is described in another Stack Overflow article here: Use Visual Studio Setup Project to automatically register and GAC a COM Interop DLL
MSI can get the job done. Right-click "File System on Target Machine",
Add, GAC. Right-click that added folder, Add, Project Output. That
ensures the assembly is gac-ed.
The GAC is the better solution in my mind, because your assemblies are managed by the .NET layer if you later make changes and enhancements to them. One of the benefits of .NET is to eliminate the old "DLL hell" issues that were in Win 98 and previous versions of Windows. I highly recommend using it for your common code.
I finished a project.I am trying create a setup .
My Problem is that :after I create setup project dll files that I used in project added to same folder with my .exe file like
ApplicationFolder(Folder)
Devexpress.Data.dll
Devexpress.Util..dll
.
.
project.exe
but I want to get it different folder.
like
ApplicationFolder(Folder)
MYDLLFILES(Folder)
project.exe(exe file)
how can I make this? Thanks a lot
This is not only a problem of setup. unless you are already handling this in the app.config and/or with appdomain.assemblyresolve event your application will not work at all on the user's machines once those required references will not be available in the same folder if the .exe file.
Surely you could isolate every single file and tell the setup project where to put it but your program has to be modifief to then look for those files in those other locations.
I accidentally faced this problem today, I want to add some separate dll files into the setup package (I have to do this because I can't add reference of these dll files into my C# program , these dll files are of 3rd-party software).
I did as following:
Right click on Setup Project > Add > Assembly and then browse to dll which I need, then press OK button.
These dll files will be included into Setup project, and will be packaged into setup file also.
Hth.
The problem is that Visual Studio setup projects will automatically include referenced DLLs for you so you won't be able to customize their location with these setup projects.
See also the following articles by DevExpress:
How to deploy WinForms applications on client machines
How to distribute applications which use Developer Express .NET Windows Forms controls
The second article explains how to register DLLs copied to a different location.
By the way we're also also deploying a big app using these VS setup projects and our base installation folder is full of DevExpress and other DLLs. I agree that it looks totally ugly and I'd also prefer a clean structure with a lib subfolder, but nobody cares about that. Customers don't start our application from the installation folder, they use the shortcuts.
I'm developping with visual studio 2008 and I use several project library used by several application project. There is also external dependency.
When I distribute the program, all the DLL appears in the program files folder which would make very easy to hack my program.
Is is possible to bundle all the project library into one exec file?
Well, if you sign your assemblies it will be near impossible to "hack" your program. Read about signing assemblies here. There is a program called ILMerge that you can use to bundle your assemblies into one, but I don't see the need really... at least not to avoid that someone hacks your codez :-)
Yes, there is. There is a tool called ILMerge. For more info see http://blogs.msdn.com/brad_mccabe/archive/2005/08/19/453703.aspx