Embed pdb into assembly

Question

I want my application to be distributable as a single .exe file but I want to be able to get nice error reports with source code line numbers (the application simply se

Answer 1

I have used the following AssemblyResolve handler and then embedding both dll and pdb of any assemblies. You could set this up as anything that runs first thing in the application before dependencies are needed.

    private static void SetupEmbeddedAssemblyResolve()
    {
        // Based on http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/02/03/jeffrey-richter-excerpt-2-from-clr-via-c-third-edition.aspx
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
        {
            var name = args.Name;
            var asmName = new AssemblyName(name);

            // Any retargetable assembly should be resolved directly using normal load e.g. System.Core issue: 
            // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18793959/filenotfoundexception-when-trying-to-load-autofac-as-an-embedded-assembly
            if (name.EndsWith("Retargetable=Yes"))
            {
                return Assembly.Load(asmName);
            }

            var executingAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
            var resourceNames = executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceNames();

            var resourceToFind = asmName.Name + ".dll";
            var resourceName = resourceNames.SingleOrDefault(n => n.Contains(resourceToFind));

            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(resourceName)) { return null; }

            var symbolsToFind = asmName.Name + ".pdb";
            var symbolsName = resourceNames.SingleOrDefault(n => n.Contains(symbolsToFind));

            var assemblyData = LoadResourceBytes(executingAssembly, resourceName);

            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(symbolsName))
            { 
                Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("Loading '{0}' as embedded resource '{1}'", resourceToFind, resourceName));

                return Assembly.Load(assemblyData);
            }
            else
            {
                var symbolsData = LoadResourceBytes(executingAssembly, symbolsName);

                Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("Loading '{0}' as embedded resource '{1}' with symbols '{2}'", resourceToFind, resourceName, symbolsName));

                return Assembly.Load(assemblyData, symbolsData);
            }
        };
    }

    private static byte[] LoadResourceBytes(Assembly executingAssembly, string resourceName)
    {
        using (var stream = executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
        {
            var assemblyData = new Byte[stream.Length];

            stream.Read(assemblyData, 0, assemblyData.Length);

            return assemblyData;
        }
    }