I am following a tutorial online using PInvoke in order to call into a C++ native .dll. All things seem to be working properly, until I get to a point where I need to set the Base Output Dir for the build artifacts in the Properties page of the C# project.
As you can see here, the path doesn’t show $SolutionDir, it is blank
When I try to use it in Post Build Events, it is also telling me that this is an undefined value.
At the end of the build there is an undefined showing
I can use pretty much any other macro such as $(Configuration) $(Platform), etc, but $(SolutionDir) just will not work. Has this been removed as supported recently?
My Visual Studio version is
Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 (2) (64-bit) – Current
Version 17.11.4
I tried using this macro first in the Base Output Directory, and then when that didn’t work, I tried to use it in a script within the Events section and tried doing a copy ($SolutionDir)file command to the output directory I want to use. But no matter where I try to use $(SolutionDir), it does not work.
I would expect to the solution dir to expand to the directory of the solution’s directory path.
Interestingly, this path DOES seem to work in the C++ project properties page:
Using $(SolutionDir) in C++ project
When I build the C++ project, this path is working:
The output path is getting resolved correctly here to the path of my solution file.
5
For those interested in a workaround, I found the following way to do this. If you edit your C# .proj file and use it as an item to copy to the output path afterwards this appears to work.
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..NativeLibrarybin$(Platform)$(Configuration)NativeLibrary.dll">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
Thanks to the provider for this answer: Are there any better ways to copy a native dll to the bin folder?
But still, it would be good to know why SolutionDir can’t be accessed in any build events.