How to add a DLL to a C# program in Visual Studio Code?

Question

I have a DLL (not a NuGet package) I want to reference in a C# program, in Visual Studio Code (not Visual Studio) V1.52.1. I cannot seem to add the reference.

The DLL is named Plumage.dll. The source code line looks like this:

Plumage.TSDRReq t = new Plumage.TSDRReq();

That generates the error "The type or namespace name 'Plumage' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) [testplum]csharp(CS0246)"

Adding

Using Plumage;

does not help and generates the same error message for that line.

I have tried copying the dll to: the same directory as my source; to the subdirectories obj\Debug\net5.0 and obj\Debug\net5.0\ref ; and to the subdirectories bin\Debug\net5.0 and bin\Debug\net5.0\ref .

I have tried adding different variations of the following to my.csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
  <Reference Include="Plumage.dll">
    <HintPath>Plumage.dll</HintPath>
    <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion> 
  </Reference>
</ItemGroup>

I am running dotnet restore (and/or dotnet restore force ) after changes. Still no progress.

I've read and tried the approaches here (but that's to add a project, not a dll) and here .

I'm finding a lot of information on how to add a NuGet package (but this is not a NuGet package); and a lot of information adding a reference using Visual Studio (but this is Visual Studio Code ); but I'm still stuck.

Answer 1

The Include attribute in the Reference tag isn't supposed to have the .dll extension. It's not a filename.

You can see examples in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16580870/103167 and in this question: Which one is correct approach for assembly reference in csproj file?