I'm using VS2005 (haven't moved to 2008 because I'm still using some legacy tools) and have a question about the way project references work.
If I make a project reference to a project that has been deployed to the GAC, VS will use the assembly in the GAC. This is annoying when I have older code in the GACed assembly and I am making code changes and doing quick tests against them - I have to either GAC the new code every time, or remove the assembly from the GAC so VS can't get it from there.
Is there a way to defeat this behavior?
Can't you just change the reference, pointing to the DLL directly?
Better yet, if you changing your DLL, use the Project as reference instead of the GAC DLL?
The best way around this is a two step proces.
1.) In your GAC'ed DLL upgrade the minor version number. (1.0 to 1.1)
2.) Update the project reference to copy local, and use the new version number.
This "SHOULD" get it working, but with the GAC it isn't always 100%.
You could go the route of a policy file, to stop the GAC from loading....but that gets way more complex.
Copy the reference locally.
Related
Running VS 2015. Have a new version of a dll. Have a VB.net solution that uses a DLL provided by a manufacturer. That DLL has been updated. No matter what I do, I can't force VS to see the new reference to the DLL at a new path. Keeps failing the build, saying it can't find the old dll at the old path.
Found this thread:
Old DLL file keeps being used
As suggested in that thread, I've tried searching for it in the GAC (not found), updating the version of the new DLL, deleting all references, etc. Tried using the Modules window, but that only works when running or in break mode, and I can't get there. Tried upgrading to VS19, same result.
The ONLY thing that seems to work is to start a new solution, add all my source files, and then point to the new DLL location. But that's not a tenable solution when this happens regularly.
Any more thoughts?
Please check your .VBPROJ file. There is a good chance you have more than one reference to the same dependency and can either get rid of one, or ensure that all have the same path.
We've just switched from SVN to TFS 2013, and I'm trying to set up a new gated build.
The project I'm currently working on has a couple of "referenced assemblies": DLL's it's dependent on which are fixed in place and don't have a nuget reference. As soon as I tried to compile my new build, it failed complaining it couldn't find these DLLs.
I assumed the answer was to include them in the solution somewhere. Which is fine, except that using solution folders appears to be a flaky, error-prone and rather rubbish way to fix things, as per Storing referenced Dlls in visual studio solution folder
However, that dates from 2011. Are there any better and more reliable ways of achieving this?
Don't discount the nuget option so quickly :) If there is no publicly available nuget package available you can wrap your assemblies in your own nuget package using the nuget package explorer:
https://npe.codeplex.com
Does the fact that you mention nuget mean you're already using nuget for other references? If so mdkes sensd to stick with it. Also are these reference assemblies third party or built internally?
I am using Visual Studio Professional 2010 and the Team Foundation Server Express (beta). My VS Project (C#.Net / WPF) has been migrated from VS 2008 (without TFS) to VS 2010 (with TFS).
Whenever I apply changes to my code and try to debug my application, I get messages like This breakpoint will not be hit. (in german: Der Haltepunkt wird momentan nicht erreicht. Der Quellcode weist Unterschiede zur Originalversion auf.) and the project is started using the old executable version (the one with the last successful build). No errors occure, the code is OK, but the changes are not applied either.
When I manually cleanup and rebuild my project, everything works quite fine - but there has to be a fix for this issue?
Edit: I just added a new project to my VS solution and checked it in on the TFS Server. Using this new project the problem does not occure. Even when I add the same dependencies I used in the project mentioned above, the debugging and building of the new project works fine without the errors mentioned above.
Maybe this information helps you to lead me to a solution.
It's not clear whether existing answers are not sufficient. I can't know exactly what's causing your problem; but, I can detail some places this potentially comes up.
The first area that I commonly see this is when a project references an assembly directly. You can create a project that creates an assembly. Another project might use that assembly and you can reference by assembly directly (and not add a reference to the "project"). This disconnects VS from really knowing it needs to "build" that referenced assembly first and it will sometimes get out of sync with the debugging symbols (PDB). You can tell if a project has been referenced or an assembly has been referenced in the properties of the reference (expand References in Solution Explorer, right-click a reference, and select Properties). A referenced project will not have a Specific Version property, while an assembly reference will. You can sometimes also tell from Project\Project Dependencies. If you have a reference to an assembly generated by another project but that project isn't a dependency in Project Dependencies, it might be an assembly reference. To fix this, you can usually just delete the reference and add a reference to the project.
I've also find that sometimes breakpoints confuses the debugger. If I have many breakpoints or they've been kicking around a long time, the debugger sometimes does some weird things. If I delete all the existing break points (Debug/Delete all breakpoints) and re-apply them the debugger is usually much happier.
You can find the answer here. The assemblies might be in GAC or a project or some projects need to be rebuild to generate the pdb files again, which are used for debugging. If you don't choose to rebuild it might use the old pdb files.
My guess is that you are putting breaking points somewhere your program can't access them.
Ex:
const int x = 5;
if(this.x == 1)
//do sth <--- breakpoint here
If you are running a mixed mode application (unmanaged native C++ & managed C#), make sure to set Enable unmanaged code debugging in your C# application's Properties window.
You have to rebuild, there isn't an easier way around it.
The program database files (PDB) need to be recreated. You should also have your configuration setting set to debug.
Also the first answer to this question must be of help as well.
This happened to me when I started VS as an admin, and it also happened to me when the project is set to a different architecture than a DLL that I used in this project.
I would like create a MVC3 website. I have existing dlls packaged as .net MSI which are installed into the GAC. What is the best way to reference these update-able dlls in MVC3? They will always be installed into the GAC, their version number will be updated accordingly. I don't want to have to manually reference them in my MVC3 project, as every time I re install, the reference will break and I have to update my dependent dll references.
Any input would be appreciated. I have looked around for solutions already but nothing seems straight forward.
Thanks
You haven't found a solution because there isn't one. In order for an assembly to be installed into the GAC it must have a strong name. Every application that uses assemblies from the GAC are tied to the given version and strong name (and this no matter whether you statically referenced the assembly at compile time or used reflection to load it). If you modify it in the GAC clients no longer work and should be updated accordingly. So if you intend to often modify versions of the assembly the GAC is probably not the right place for you. You could still make changes to an assembly in the GAC without modifying its version but you must ensure that those changes are compatible in order to avoid breaking clients.
This assembly is in the GAC: Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.RegisteredServers.dll
How can I add a reference to this assembly in Visual Studio?
I can view the file in c:\windows\assembly\
As the others said, most of the time you won't want to do that because it doesn't copy the assembly to your project and it won't deploy with your project. However, if you're like me, and trying to add a reference that all target machines have in their GAC but it's not a .NET Framework assembly:
Open the windows Run dialog (Windows Key + r)
Type C:\Windows\assembly\gac_msil. This is some sort of weird hack that lets you browse your GAC. You can only get to it through the run dialog. Hopefully my spreading this info doesn't eventually cause Microsoft to patch it and block it. (Too paranoid? :P)
Find your assembly and copy its path from the address bar.
Open the Add Reference dialog in Visual Studio and choose the Browse tab.
Paste in the path to your GAC assembly.
I don't know if there's an easier way, but I haven't found it. I also frequently use step 1-3 to place .pdb files with their GAC assemblies to make sure they're not lost when I later need to use Remote Debugger.
Registering assmblies into the GAC does not then place a reference to the assembly in the add references dialog. You still need to reference the assembly by path for your project, the main difference being you do not need to use the copy local option, your app will find it at runtime.
In this particular case, you just need to reference your assembly by path (browse) or if you really want to have it in the add reference dialog there is a registry setting where you can add additional paths.
Note, if you ship your app to someone who does not have this assembly installed you will need to ship it, and in this case you really need to use the SharedManagementObjects.msi redistributable.
I've created a tool which is completely free, that will help you to achieve your goal. Muse VSReferences will allow you to add a Global Assembly Cache reference to the project from Add GAC Reference menu item.
Hope this helps Muse VSExtensions
In VS2010, from the Add Rerences window you can click 'Browse' and navigate to C:\Windows\Assembly and add references to the assemblies that you want. Please note that the files may be grouped under different folders like GAC, GAC_32, GAC_64, GAC_MSIL etc.
In VS, right click your project, select "Add Reference...", and you will see all the namespaces that exist in your GAC. Choose Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.RegisteredServers and click OK, and you should be good to go
EDIT:
That is the way you want to do this most of the time. However, after a bit of poking around I found this issue on MS Connect. MS says it is a known deployment issue, and they don't have a work around. The guy says if he copies the dll from the GAC folder and drops it in his bin, it works.
The only way that worked for me, is by copying the dll into your desktop or something, add reference to it, then delete the dll from your desktop.
Visual Studio will refresh itself, and will finally reference the dll from the GAC on itself.
Assuming you alredy tried to "Add Reference..." as explained above and did not succeed, you can have a look here. They say you have to meet some prerequisites:
- .NET 3.5 SP1
- Windows Installer 4.5
EDIT: According to this post it is a known issue.
And this could be the solution you're looking for :)
May be it's too late to answer, but i found a very simple way to do this(without a hack).
Put your dll in GAC (for 3.5 Drag Drop inside "C:\Windows\assembly\")
GoTo Projects --> Properties
Click Reference Path (for 3.5 it's "C:\Windows\assembly\")
and Build
Hope it helps
The relevant files and references can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc283981.aspx
Note the links off it about implementation/etc.
I found this extension for VS 2013 Vitevic GAC Reference.