How do I copy my dll and other binaries from bin folder in asp.net website to azure devops pipeline

Question

I just created an azure pipeline from bitbucket cloud and using the default generated yaml file, when i run the Run New pipeline, I am getting errors in VsBuild saying

    Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'RestSharp' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

The RestSharp.dll is located in my bin folder in asp.net website.

Looking at the raw logs, it says

    2020-07-10T03:35:57.7771564Z           Considered "d:\a\1\s\mywebsite\Bin\RestSharp.dll", but it didn't exist.
    2020-07-10T03:35:57.7772002Z           For SearchPath "{TargetFrameworkDirectory}".
    2020-07-10T03:35:57.7772374Z           Considered "C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6\RestSharp.winmd", but it didn't exist.
    2020-07-10T03:35:57.7772874Z           Considered "C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6\RestSharp.dll", but it didn't exist.
    ...

However, when I build in VS 2019, there are no build errors, since I am referencing my dlls and binaries. How do I fix this missing dlls or referenced binaries? If I need to copy files from bin folder to the build directory, how?

Answer 1

Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'RestSharp' could not be found

Tested using.dll file path in bin folder as HintPath . I encountered the same issue.

It seems that the root cause of this issue is that the RestSharp.dll doesn't exist in the Bin folder at the time of reference.

This is my solution to solve this issue:

Step1: Add the package reference in Packages.config file.

For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
.....
  <package id="RestSharp" version="106.11.4" targetFramework="net472" />
</packages>

Step2: Change the RestSharp HintPath in .csproj file. Since you add the package reference, you could directly get the RestSharp.dll in the package path.

For example:

<Reference Include="RestSharp">
  <Private>True</Private>
  <HintPath>..\packages\RestSharp.106.11.4\lib\net452\RestSharp.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

Then the RestSharp.dll could be used in the build.

By the way, I recommend that you could turn them into packages, and restore them during build. Then you could get the dll files in the package path. This can avoid the error above.