How to include grpc_csharp_ext.x86.dll with Fody/Costura?

Question

Looking forward to this article and issue:

1) https://idmedia.no/general/including-sqlite-interop-dll-into-your-c-project/

2) https://github.com/Fody/Fody/issues/673

Could not resolve an issue. Did anyone have a similar issue?

Costura/Fody can not include grpc_csharp_ext.x86.dll. Does it matter because it is runtime .dll?

Image 1) Ignore this message check internet connection it is just my suffix sentence. .

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Image 2) That is .dll that is not included. .

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Image 3) And those are dlls in solution project like on link 1) Set to EmbededResource but still not working. .

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And this is my FodyWeavers.xml

<Weavers xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
         xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="FodyWeavers.xsd">
  <Costura IgnoreSatelliteAssemblies='true'
           Unmanaged32Assemblies='grpc_csharp_ext'
           Unmanaged64Assemblies='grpc_csharp_ext'>
  </Costura>
</Weavers>

Did you tried to decompile final dll to see if dll is actually missing? Seems like linkage error. — eocron, Apr 06 '20 at 22:40
Yes I decompiled, but another dll **Grpc.Core.dll** in my project needs that specific dll, and yes after decompile there is no grpc_csharp_ext.dll in final .exe. Any more suggestions. I already tried to add **grpc_csharp_ext.dll** as a reference to a project but I gives me error: Could not be added. Please make sure that the file is accessible, and that it is a valid assembly or COM component. — I.Step, Apr 07 '20 at 09:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 29 '20 at 09:24

I had the same problem when building my .NET app which used gRPC. I found out that if I didn't include the global.json file in the root of the repository and explicitly stated the SDK version which I want to use, the build would just use the default SDK version which, for some reason, didn't include the grpc_csharp_ext.x86.dll in the output folder.

I would suggest to include the file in your solution and then try to build it.

Example global.json file:

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "2.2.207"
  }
}

If you don't want this file, you can also create a powershell script which creates the file, builds (or publishes) the solution and then removes the file:

dotnet new globaljson --sdk-version 2.2.207
try
{
    dotnet build ... (or dotnet publish ...)
}
finally
{
    Remove-Item .\global.json
}

Thank you for your answer, I used ClickOnce with installer approach, instead of Costura/Fody, but if I will ever use Costura/Fody I will try this. — I.Step, Apr 29 '20 at 10:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 31 '22 at 12:30

The problem is - Grpc.Core is internally searching for grpc_csharp_ext dlls in the App folder:

https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/e5562a66a4e6bd1900bc9b144587d6d593720c1d/src/csharp/Grpc.Core/Internal/NativeExtension.cs#L91

The workaround to put it into the Costura package is described in:

https://www.giters.com/Fody/Costura/issues/641

The main idea is to extract these dlls from the Costura package on app start.

How to include grpc_csharp_ext.x86.dll with Fody/Costura?

2 Answers2