Question

I have a question I don’t know if it can be solved. I have one C# project on Visual Studio 2005 and I want to create different DLL names depending on a preprocessor constant. What I have in this moment is the preprocessor constant, two snk files and two assembly’s guid. I also create two configurations (Debug and Debug Preprocessor) and they compile perfectly using the snk and guid appropriate.

#if PREPROCESSOR_CONSTANT [assembly: AssemblyTitle('MyLibraryConstant')] [assembly: AssemblyProduct('MyLibraryConstant')] #else [assembly: AssemblyTitle('MyLibrary')] [assembly: AssemblyProduct('MyLibrary')] #endif 

Now, I have to put the two assemblies into the GAC. The first assembly is added without problems but the second isn’t.

What can I do to create two or more different assemblies from one Visual Studio project?

It’s possible that I forgot to include a new line on ‘AssemblyInfo.cs’ to change the DLL name depending on the preprocessor constant?

Answer 1

Here is a sample Post-Build event:

if '$(ConfigurationName)' == 'Debug' goto Debug if '$(ConfigurationName)' == 'Release' goto Release  goto End  :Debug del '$(TargetDir)DebugOutput.dll' rename '$(TargetPath)' 'DebugOutput.dll'  :Release del '$(TargetDir)ReleaseOutput.dll' rename '$(TargetPath)' 'ReleaseOutput.dll'  :End 

Change DebugOutput.dll and ReleaseOutput.dll to the proper filenames. you can change 'Debug' and 'Release' to support other configurations, and add sections to support more configurations.

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That script will create two dlls with different file names; to create two different AssemblyNames, you have two options.

The assembly name is built as follows:

Name <,Culture = CultureInfo> <,Version = Major.Minor.Build.Revision> <, StrongName> <,PublicKeyToken> '\0' 

So you have to either change the culture info, the version or the strong name.

The two simplest options are:

1. Change the assembly version:

   #if SOME_COMPILER_SYMBOL [assembly: AssemblyVersion('1.0.0.0')] #else [assembly: AssemblyVersion('1.0.0.1')] #endif 

2. Change the keyfile – create two keyfiles with the sn tool, and in AssemblyInfo.cs:

   #if SOME_COMPILER_SYMBOL [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile('FirstKey.snk')] #else [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile('SecondKey.snk')] #endif 

Both these options will result in two different assemblies as far as the GAC knows – since it compares the full assembly name, and not the ‘simple’ name.