[Mono-dev] Resolving dependencies while compiling

["Andrés G. Aragoneses"]

FYI this is all very related to this bug, if not the same issue:

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=376876

Regards

	Andres


Grzegorz Sobanski wrote:
> * Jonathan Pryor <jonpryor at vt.edu> [2009-05-20 15:59]:
> [cut everything about extra copies and referencing]
>> 	gmcs -t:library -lib:b/bin/Debug,a/bin/Debug c/c.cs -r:b.dll -r:a.dll
> 
> Yeap, all the above is true. And is the same for both VS and Mono.
> 
> But I think, that paszczi in his original mail missed the real problem:
> 
>> Now, if you don't want to specify the entire assembly dependency chain
>> (e.g. you only want to specify b.dll or X.dll, not both a.dll+b.dll or
>> X.dll+Y.dll), then you *must* have a copy/symlink:
> 
> The "must" is (un)fortunately not true for VS.
>  
>> 	cp a/bin/Debug/a.dll b/bin/Debug
>> 	gmcs -t:library c/c.cs -r:b/bin/Debug/b.dll
> 
> It is only true if c.cs (c.dll) uses types from a.dll.
> 
> Ex: if a.dll contains class LibA {...}
> And b.dll contains 
> class LibB {
>   public string Met1 () { return "hey!"; }
>   public LibA Met2 () { return new LibA (); }
> }
> 
> I can sucessfully compile c.dll in VS if it only calls Met1, without
> referencing a.dll, and without having any copies of a.dll laying around.
> (after compiling b.dll I have deleted all a.dll files)
> And I can even execute c.dll without having a.dll (as dependecies
> are resolved at call time not at startup time. It is the same in Mono
> I believe).
> 
> Unfortunately to compile c.dll in gmcs I need a a.dll even if c.dll
> does not use any type from a.dll.
> 
> (If b.dll is referencing a.dll but does not have anything from a.dll
> in it's public contract, then c.dll will compile fine in gmcs)
> 
> 
> Now, some real-life example.
> We are building modular software and using a bunch of libraries, for
> example: Castle.MicroKernel, Castle.ActiveRecord, etc. (let's call them
> tier 1)
> They reference some more libaries. Iesi.Collections, NHibernate (tier 0)
> 
> We build modules (tier 2): ModuleA, ModuleB referencing and using a lot 
> of tier 1 libraries (Castle.* mainly).
> 
> And those modules are used by some applications (tier 3). Now even if 
> application is not using any types from Tier1 they are still needed
> at compile time (in mono, not in VS). What's more, even dlls from Tier0
> are needed.
> 
> There are different solutions we could use:
> 1) gmcs could compile like VS, not knowing the types from Tier0/1 -
>    ideal
> 2) reference all dll's from Tier0/1 in application - bad
> 3) copy (symlink) all dll's from Tier0/1 to directory of every Module* (Tier2)
>    - that's what we've been using until now. But it started to be 
>      a real maintenance problem.
> 4) put all dll's from all Tiers to one directory - we want to avoid that
> 5) use MONO_PATH= during compilation to show directories where Tier0/1
>    dll's can be found - we are using it now (I know it is 'not
>    recommended' :P)
> 6) use -lib instead of MONO_PATH - but that would still mean adding to
>    every project from Tier3 every directory from Tier0/1.
>   
> To sum up - problem is when I'm using b.dll which has something
> from a.dll in it's public API, but I'm not consuming it. I would
> like to skip a reference to a.dll in c.dll then.
> 
> (We can ensure in some other way that all needed dll's from tier0/1 
> will be available at runtime).
> 
> Uff, a long mail ;P
> greets
> 
> silk