Setting output path for C# project using VS environment variables

Question

_{Thursday, February 28, 2008 3:19 PM | 1 vote}

Hello,

We have a solution with both C++ and C# projects. For C++ we use output path set to something like "$(SolutionDir)..\bin\(ConfigurationName)" which works perfectly fine. We would like to use the same approach for C# projects. We build projects through IDE not msbuild.

For C# projects it turned out that VS project properties editor does not write correctly output path that includes variable paths into .csproj file. Is this a bug ??

So at first we used post-build events which worked ok with variables that copied output assembly from bin/debug to our "$(SolutionDir)..\bin\(ConfigurationName)" folder.

But then we discovered that it is possible to modify csproj file manually

<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">

<DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>

<DebugType>full</DebugType>

<Optimize>false</Optimize>

<OutputPath>$(SolutionDir)..\bin\(Configuration)\</OutputPath>

<DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>

<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>

<WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>

</PropertyGroup>

But some developers complain that since this is not supported by VS IDE editor we should not use this.

So let's take a step back and think about it

Let us imagine a simple example solution C:\Solution1\solution.sln
Let's initially assume

- We use default output folders for C# projects like "bin/debug"

- We cannot simply use relate paths like "../../bin/debug" because those projects are included in many different solutions on different directory levels.

1. - C:\Solution1\CPP\CPP.vcproj - C++ exe project linking to CLI library

2. - C:\Solution1\INTEROP\INTEROP.vcproj - C++/CLI library project referencing C# library 1

3. - C:\NET\LIB1\LIB1.csproj - C# library 1 referencing C# library 2

4. - C:\NET\LIB2\LIB2.csproj - C# library 2

5. - C:\NET\CS\CS.csproj - C# exe project with .config file (copy local) - referencing both C# library 1 and 2

Expected - we would like to have all exe and dll in a C:\bin\debug or C:\bin\release folders.

Since all projects are in one solution "copy local" flag does not matter, referenced assemblies are always copied.

Output result

Project 1 - C:\bin\debug\cpp.exe

Project 2 - C:\bin\debug\interop.dll and C:\bin\debug\lib1.dll

Project 3 - C:\NET\LIB1\bin\debug\lib1.dll and lib2.dll

Project 4 - C:\NET\LIB2\bin\debug\lib2.dll

Project 5 - C:\NET\CS\bin\debug\cs.exe, cs.exe.config, lib1.dll and lib2.dll

Let's debug cpp.exe. In run-time we will get error that lib2.dll is not found.

I have this sample solution, but not sure if I can attach it.

So final question is :

Which approach do you think is the best ?

- post-build events for C# projects (even more duplicate copies of assemblies and quite a mess)

- csproj manual editing (not supported by IDE editor and someone can overwrite the file by mistake)

- bogus references to all C# projects in INTEROP library to have them copied (sounds bad)

- some other approach?

Thanks,

Andrzej [severian]