MSBuild cannot find a reference

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I'm currently trying to figure out why MSBuild is not able to compile one of our unit test dlls. The problem is only occuring with this DLL and not with the other unit test projects.

This is the output I receive from TeamCity when the build fails:

[10:38:55]: NAnt output:
[10:38:55]: [exec]
[10:38:55]: [exec]
[10:38:55]: [exec] "C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\Robinson.sln" (default target) (1) ->
[10:38:55]: [exec] "C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj" (default target) (19) ->
[10:38:55]: [exec] (CoreCompile target) ->
[10:38:55]: [exec] Modules\SecurityModuleTests.cs(10,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Modules' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] Modules\SecurityModuleTests.cs(197,39): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'SecurityModule' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] TranslateTests.cs(10,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Utils' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] IPETests.cs(8,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Ajax' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] Pages\BasePageTest.cs(6,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Utils' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] Pages\BasePageTest.cs(7,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Pages' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] ServiceAsmxTests.cs(9,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Ajax' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] ServiceAsmxTests.cs(10,30): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Utils' does not exist in the namespace 'TenForce.Execution.Web' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] Pages\BasePageTest.cs(16,17): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'basepage' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec] ServiceAsmxTests.cs(22,17): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Service' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) [C:\Robinson\trunk\Projects\Robinson\TenForceExecutionTests\TenForceExecutionTests.csproj]
[10:38:55]: [exec]
[10:38:55]: [exec] 2075 Warning(s)
[10:38:55]: [exec] 10 Error(s)
[10:38:55]: [exec]
[10:38:55]: [exec] Time Elapsed 00:01:40.06

The project TenForceExecutionTests is a simply DLL that contains several UnitTests of the MBunit Framework. This project has a reference to TenForceExecution which is a web application project and another reference to TenForce.Execution.Test, which is another DLL containing logic for both projects.

When we compile everything on the development machine, it works without problems and the compile occurs without errors. On the build agent however this seems to fail...

INFO

  • Target Framework : .NET4
  • OS : Windows XP 32bit
  • Windows 7 SDK Installed

EDIT

Did a clean checkout, and Visual Studio is able to build the entire solution, msbuild however cannot.

EDIT 2

Checked the dependencies:

  • There is a project dependency between the projects
  • There is a solution dependecy between the projects

EDIT 3 When I remove the reference to the webApplication project, and replace it with a reference to the compiled DLL of that project, the errors dissapear and the project compiles fine with MSBuild.

EDIT 4 I've ran the entire build from msbuild through a LOG and took a look at the specific task for compiling the project that's giving problems:

  Task "Csc"
    c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Csc.exe /noconfig /nowarn:1701,1702 /nostdlib+ /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\ASP.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\BUL\bin\Debug\BUL.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\BULTest\bin\Debug\BULTest.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\DAL\bin\Debug\DAL.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\Framework\bin\Debug\Framework.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\Gallio.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\Iesi.Collections.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\LanguageResource\bin\Debug\LanguageResource.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\log4net.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\MbUnit.dll /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\mscorlib.dll" /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\NHibernate.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\PresentationBridge\bin\Debug\PresentationBridge.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\PresentationBridgeTest\bin\Debug\PresentationBridgeTest.dll /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Configuration.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Core.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Data.dll" /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\System.Data.SQLite.DLL /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Web.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Web.Extensions.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Web.Services.dll" /reference:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Xml.dll" /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\TenForce.Execution.Test\bin\Debug\TenForce.Execution.Test.dll /reference:D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\Documents\RobinsonSource\Projects\Robinson\ThirdPartyComponents\WatiN.Core.dll /debug+ /debug:full /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\TenForceExecutionTests.dll /target:library Modules\SecurityModuleTests.cs TestRunSetup.cs TranslateTests.cs WebBaseTest.cs MetaTests.cs IPETests.cs Pages\BasePageTest.cs Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs ServiceAsmxTests.cs Settings.Designer.cs "D:\Users\arne.de.herdt.TENFORCE2\AppData\Local\Temp\6\.NETFramework,Version=v4.0.AssemblyAttributes.cs"
    Microsoft (R) Visual C# 2010 Compiler version 4.0.30319.1
    Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

From what I can tell, the actuall WebApplication is NOT included in the reference list.

continuous-integration visual-studio-2010 msbuild c#
13 Answers

I also found a similar reference issue when building an UWP appx package. There are a lot of error messages look like:

App.xaml.cs(6,15): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'ApplicationModel' does not exist in the namespace 'Windows' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

If opening the sln file with VS2017, it builds no problem.

I did two things to fix this issue:

  1. I noticed that the original solution requires winSDK 10.0.18362, but on my build machine, I don't have it. If opening with VS2017, it asks me to re-target the SDK to an installed older version. I think the msbuild may not be able to do the re-target, so I just downloaded and installed the required winSDK 18362.
  2. I added a "/t:restore" option to the msbuild command line, and run the msbuild twice:
    msbuild mySolution.sln /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64" /t:restore
    msbuild mySolution.sln /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="x64"

For restore, please refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/msbuild-targets#restore-target

user_74392200

I encountered same issue (Build successfully in Visual studio, but fail by MSBUILD).

After tried different solutions mentioned in this questions but failed.

Fortunately finally I found adding -tv:version resolve the errors.

For my project, the <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.0</TargetFrameworkVersion> in my A.csproj is v4.0, so I used the command like msbuild A.csproj -tv:4.0 then succeeded to compile the projects.

Below are the struct of my solution:

  1. Project A: startup project and target framework version=v4.0

  2. Project B: reference project, its target framework version=v3.5

  3. Project C: reference project, its target framework version=v3.5

It seems if not telling the specific target framework version to MSBUILD when exists multiple versions, sometimes it will get messed up.

user_56658700

I have tried using AnyCPU and Prefer-32 bit, it still didn't work. Also tried with AnyCPU without checking Prefer-32 bit but nothing worked. I was having this issue when Deploying my code using the Bamboo. I made sure my packages are all checked in to the code(as my nuget restore in bamboo have an issue) and make sure my dll references in the project are looking at the packages in their paths. I checked in my packages by removing the /packages from the .gitignore file. Also, updated my packages.config file in the project to mention the package and the version to use. For Ex: Also, made sure the Agent on which the Deployment task is running, it has the needed .NET framework version. With the above all changes, I could resolve this reference issue.

user_102045960

My project configuration file "csproj" had two <ItemGroup> sections with <ProjectReference>s

This error has gone when I merged these <ItemGroup> sections.

user_9086430

Had the same problem with a Visual Studio 2019 project.

The issue was solved by migrating project references from packages.config to PackageReference.

From the Microsoft Docs:

  1. Open a solution containing project using packages.config.

  2. In Solution Explorer, right-click on the References node or the packages.config file and select Migrate packages.config to PackageReference....

[...]

Note

Before migration begins, Visual Studio creates a backup of the project to allow you to roll back to packages.config if necessary.

user_19515240
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