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I know I can merge PDB with a DLL file but I'm trying to do the same with an XML documentation file.

It should be possible since you don't have .xml files with .NET assemblies and yet you have documentation in the IDE.

How to do this?

Mogsdad
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Stécy
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2 Answers2

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There's a command-line option for ILMerge to also merge the XML documentation /xmldocs.

Paul Turner
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    Unfortunately, merging of XML files produces one XML file outside of the assembly. I was looking for a way to have the XML embedded inside the assembly so as to only have one file (the assembly). – Stécy Apr 27 '10 at 11:44
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ILMerge is only for merging DLLs and EXE's into one big DLL and EXE's respectively. The XML documentation is generated by the C# Compiler and ILMerge has nothing to do with it as it deals with the binary content of these files. If you were to think of ILMerge as Instruction Language Merge (ILMerge) that is all it does, no dealings with XML documentation. Sandcastle is a such documentation generator, by telling Sandcastle you want to build a Html Help or CHM of all xml comments, it will do that for you.

Hope this clarifies the understanding of ILMerge.

t0mm13b
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  • Ok, but what about the way VStudio does it? I can't seem to find XML files for system libraries... – Stécy Nov 30 '09 at 12:29
  • Visual Studio knows about the source code which is organized into a part of a Solution, looking at the solution explorer, which can be more than one project listed underneath, VS can pull in all the xml comments in one fell swoop. System Libraries do not have XML files, remember this much, all xml comments are stripped by the compiler when it is generated into IL code. The MSDN is your friend when it comes to finding out about what the system libraries are, their namespaces, classes, methods, properties and events. Does this make sense? – t0mm13b Nov 30 '09 at 15:04
  • A more astute question would be, how does it work in visual studio or with the .NET Framework assemblies? – Observer Oct 21 '14 at 10:46