Critical dependency issue - Unexpected ESRI DLL files copied next to a target dll

[MarkMindlin]

Hi,

We have a DLLs library that references ESRI DLLs and we upgrade it from version to version constantly (10.0 -> 10.X.X -> 10.6.1). This time we have a strange behaviour: at Rebuild it copies unexpected ESRI DLL files next to a target dll.

We assume that a setting “Copy Local” in Properties of a referenced DLL is a key to understand the issue.

Why are these additional ESRI DLLs included as a reference?

What is important: We have two our dlls (solutions): first and second.

 The first  has only ESRI references.

The second has a reference to the first and ESRI references.

 The issue does not appear in the first. It appears in the second.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[MarkMindlin]

We think the key is a GAC,

and Visual Studio 2017 does not see the ESRI DLLs in the GAC when builds.

[MarkMindlin]

We have submitted to Microsoft community as well.

Visual Studio 2017 15.8.0 .Net 4.5 copies secondary reference/dependency - Developer Community 

[MarkMindlin]

How could we set "CopyLocalDependenciesWhenParentReferenceInGac" to false?

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

You can set it in the project (.csproj)

  <PropertyGroup>
    <!-- Fix the default copy local behaviour changed in VS 2015 -->
    <DoNotCopyLocalIfInGac>true</DoNotCopyLocalIfInGac>
  </PropertyGroup>‍‍‍‍

See also: Behavior change for RAR Copy Local behavior when in the GAC · Issue #24 · Microsoft/msbuild · GitHub 

[MarkMindlin]

Many thanks Sean. It really helped!!