Loss of referenced dll in ClickOnce publish after signing main .exe

Question

I added a post-build step to use signtool on my executable using a pfx file. This happens successfully but something gets broken when I try to publish with ClickOnce. If I just build, my .exe.manifest will have an entry to install the reference. However, if I select publish (with ClickOnce), the .exe.manifest gets altered so that the reference isn't even mentioned. This does not happen if I do not run the signtool post-build step.

Update It seems that at the time of publish, ClickOnce scans the .exe file for dependencies and rebuilds the manifest. However, if the .exe is signed with signtool, ClickOnce is not able to properly pull all the details. The result is that the manifest has missing pieces. Yuck.

Answer 1

Why are you using signtool on the exe? If you want to sign the exe, you can specify that in the Signing tab (sign the assembly -- the strong naming option).