Could not load file or assembly AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput

[SKProCH]

Description

Hello. Seems like when I publish my project, AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput.dll doesn't get copied to publish folder and app fails with:

Could not load file or assembly 'AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'. The system cannot find the file specified.

Reproduction Steps

1. Create project
2. Add package

<PackageReference Include="stbychkov.AutoLoggerMessage" Version="1.0.10">
	<PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
	<IncludeAssets>compile; runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>

3. Publish

Expected behavior

Probably AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput should be copied to publish folder. This is build folder:

Actual behavior

Publish folder:

Regression?

No response

Known Workarounds

No response

Configuration

.NET SDK:
Version: 10.0.100-preview.3.25201.16
Commit: 9dee3cf508
Workload version: 10.0.100-preview.3.25208.1
MSBuild version: 17.14.0-preview-25177-05+903614e16

But seems like this is unrelated to SDK version and configuration

Other information

No response

[stbychkov]

Hi, thanks for reporting the issue.

Could you please check this discussion and let me know if it resolves the problem?

If it's applicable only to publish, I'll check it out within a few days.

[SKProCH]

Could you please check #21 (comment) discussion and let me know if it resolves the problem?

Yeah, i've already read that and use

<IncludeAssets>compile; runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>

from there, but apparently this is still doesn't work for publish

[stbychkov]

Hi,

As a quick workaround, you can add the AutoLoggerMessage package without specifying the assets to include, as discussed in the linked issue:

<PackageReference Include="stbychkov.AutoLoggerMessage" Version="1.0.10" />

I’ve tested this and it works as expected.

This will be automatically addressed for you in v1.0.11 of the package.

[SKProCH]

Thanks for the fix, but didn't you think that this approach is not a fully correct one?

I mean development dependency is a trigger to allow IDEs to insert a proper Include/ExcludeAssets, and default one removes source generator from transitive dependency. As I can understand currently it imports as the usual lib and source generator dll will be copied to the bin and the package will be included as transitive dependency.

Probably we should implement some other solution? E.g. generate content of AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput from source gen and embed it directly to the project, instead of referencing it via dll?

[stbychkov]

Hey, thanks for the input!

I mean development dependency is a trigger to allow IDEs to insert a proper Include/ExcludeAssets, and default one removes source generator from transitive dependency. As I can understand currently it imports as the usual lib and source generator dll will be copied to the bin and the package will be included as transitive dependency.

Yeah, I get your point, but just to clarify: only AutoLoggerMessage.BuildOutput.dll ends up in the output folder, and that’s on purpose. The actual source generator DLL is not included in the output.

E.g. generate content of AutoLoggerMessageGenerator.BuildOutput from source gen and embed it directly to the project, instead of referencing it via dll?

There are a few issues with doing it that way:

1. We can only generate generic logger extensions with either internal or public access modifiers, which limits how we can share code cleanly.
2. We have projects with InternalsVisibleTo attributes that can easily lead to conflicts if multiple projects end up generating similar extension classes.

We could technically generate a unique class per project, but that would just blow up each project’s size for no real benefit, like adding for each project about 1k lines that don’t need to be there. Packing those generic extensions into a separate DLL avoids all that mess as it’s cleaner, avoids code bloat, and makes it easier to know what’s coming from where.

If you want to experiment with this and come up with a better approach - go for it. I’m always open to improvements if they make things better without adding too much overhead!

[SKProCH]

The actual source generator DLL is not included in the output.

If the actual dll still doesn't included in output and doesn't referenced transitively - then its alight.

[DmitryNizhebovsky]

Hi, in the new version, the problem described in this issue was fixed. But now I have a problem with dotnet publish. Assembly AutologgerMessageGenerator.BuildoutPut.dll is not copied to output directory.

For example dotnet publish MyProject\MyProject.csproj -c Release -o /app/publish /p:UseAppHost=false

[stbychkov]

Hi @DmitryNizhebovsky,

I’ve double-checked, and everything is working as expected on my end:

Please verify how the dependency was added to your project. If you’re excluding certain assets, that might explain why it’s missing from the publish folder.

the problem described in this issue was fixed

And if you confirm that the issue persists on your side, feel free to open a new one.

Thanks