protect exe through dotfuscator in vs2008 by post build option

Question

I am new to Dotfuscator. I want to protect my .exe file through dotfuscator in visual studio2008 using post build option.But I am unable to do this ok,I am using the command in post build option like "dotfuscator C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Hello\\Hello\\bin\\x86\\Debug\\Hello.exe" but VS2008 show the error the "The command "dotfuscator C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Hello\\Hello\\bin\\x86\\Debug\\Hello.exe" exited with code 9009". What should I do.

Answer 1

Tr creating a myDotfuscatorConfig.xml in the same directory as your source root (C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Hello\\Hello), looking something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE dotfuscator SYSTEM "http://www.preemptive.com/dotfuscator/dtd/dotfuscator_v2.3.dtd">
<dotfuscator version="2.3">
   <input>
      <loadpaths />
      <asmlist>
         <inputassembly refid="6175A05D-933C-44BB-B183-AAA5F32C49D1">
            <file dir="${configdir}\bin\x86\Debug" name="Hello.exe" />
         </inputassembly>
      </asmlist>
   </input>

   <output>
      <file dir="${configdir}\bin\x86\obfuscated\Debug" />
   </output>         
</dotfuscator>

Then, execute dotfuscator.exe and pass the name of the config file as the argument. If this works ok from the commandline, adding it as a post-build action should be trivial.

Answer 2

Anders is correct, creating a config file and sending that to Dotfuscator via the command line is the way to go. However, you'll need to register for an account at http://www.preemptive.com and download the latest Dotfuscator CE patch that includes command-line support. The version that comes with Visual Studio does not support a fully-automated command line mode. Once you have the updated version installed, you should be able to run "dotfuscator.exe " without issue.