MSBuild doesn't copy references (DLL files) if using project dependencies in solution

Question

I have four projects in my Visual Studio solution (everyone targeting .NET 3.5) - for my problem only these two are important:

1. MyBaseProject &

Answer 1

Take a look at:

This MSBuild forum thread I started

You will find my temporary solution / workaround there!

(MyBaseProject needs some code that is referencing some classes (whatever) from the elmah.dll for elmah.dll being copied to MyWebProject1's bin!)

Answer 2

Make sure that both projects are in the same .net version also check copy local property but this should be true as default

Answer 3

I had the same problem and the dll was a dynamically loaded reference. To solve the problem I have added an "using" with the namespace of the dll. Now the dll is copied in the output folder.

Answer 4

I just deal with it like this. Go to the properties of your reference and do this:

Set "Copy local = false"
Save
Set "Copy local = true"
Save

and that's it.

Visual Studio 2010 doesn't initially put: <private>True</private> in the reference tag and setting "copy local" to false causes it to create the tag. Afterwards it will set it to true and false accordingly.

Answer 5

Including all referenced DLL files from your projectreferences in the Website project is not always a good idea, especially when you're using dependency injection: your web project just want to add a reference to the interface DLL file/project, not any concrete implementation DLL file.

Because if you add a reference directly to an implementation DLL file/project, you can't prevent your developer from calling a "new" on concrete classes of the implementation DLL file/project instead of via the interface. It's also you've stated a "hardcode" in your website to use the implementation.

Answer 6

Referencing assemblies that are not used during build is not the correct practice. You should augment your build file so it will copy the additional files. Either by using a post build event or by updating the property group.

Some examples can be found in other post

• MSBuild to copy dynamically generated files as part of project dependency
• VS2010 How to include files in project, to copy them to build output directory automatically during build or publish