Question

I am attempting to debug this message:

The type 'Logging.LoggingProvider' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Logging.LoggingProvider, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71561dfc7a07d5da'. 

I have several nuget packages that depend on each other in a chain. When digging into the project files that build these packages i have found that the way assemblies are being referenced is slightly different. Some have the key in them and others do not. this had led me to believe that if i find a way to make the references created by nuget consistent my problem will go away.

The assemblies were at one time signed. I thought the reference behaviour changed if i removed signed assemblies = false from the project, but that does not seem to be the case.

Eg in 1 solution i have used the same nuget package and version in 2 different projects the references are different

The incorrect one (or at least undesirable)

<Reference Include="Logging.LoggingProvider, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71561dfc7a07d5da, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\packages\Logging.LoggingProvider.1.0.24\lib\Logging.LoggingProvider.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

and in another project the correct one is

<Reference Include="Logging.LoggingProvider, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\packages\Logging.LoggingProvider.1.0.24\lib\Logging.LoggingProvider.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

What could be causing this? I am quite literally adding the nuget package to 1 project then the next.. One works and the other doesn’t – I cant see anything in the project files explaining why.

Answer 1

NuGet uses the underlying VS layer to add references while installing a package.
What is the behavior when you try to add this reference to those projects manually ?