Changing .NET Core WPF project item from None to Resource does not embed item in output assembly

[rladuca]

@vsfeedback commented on Sun Nov 24 2019

This issue has a corresponding ticket on Developer Community. Please vote and comment there to make sure your voice is heard.

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This issue is present in VS2019 16.3.7, when targeting WPF and .NET Core 3.0 or .NET Framework 4.7.2 with the new SDK-Style .csproj format.

When changing [Build Action] for a file between [None] and [Resource] in SDK-Style .csproj, the Output dll/exe is not correctly recreated on Build (if there are no other changes triggering a recompile) - we have to do a Rebuild to get the desired effect!

NOTE: The Build command seems to do something, but the size of the resulting dll/exe does not reflect the removal/addition of the built-in resource content. After a Rebuild (or after changing code etc and doing another Build) the size of the dll/exe is corrected.

Interestingly enough, the same issue does not seem to apply when switching between [None] and [EmbeddedResource].

The issue can easily be reproduced:

• Create a new WPF application (with SDK-style .csproj file).
• Drop an image file or similar with a size that's large compared to the application .dll/.exe output (just to easily spot the size difference when the image is embedded or not).
• Initially the image file will have [Build Action = None]. Build the app and note the size of the output dll/exe.
• Then change to [Build Action = Resource] and Build again (not Rebuild, and no code change in between).
• The build seems to update the dll/exe, but the output size does not change.
• Now, do a Rebuild (or change a source-code file and Build). The output size will change.

The above steps can be used to repeatedly reproduce the (wrong size) issue by toggling between [None] and [Resource] - doing a build does not change the size, but doing a Rebuild correctly updates the size (of the output dll/exe).

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Original Comments

Visual Studio Feedback System on 11/1/2019, 04:48 PM:

We have directed your feedback to the appropriate engineering team for further evaluation. The team will review the feedback and notify you about the next steps.

Sara Liu [MSFT] on 11/4/2019, 06:17 PM:

Thank you for your feedback, this issue has been escalated for further investigation and if there is any process, I will inform you immediately.

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Original Solutions

(no solutions)

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@drewnoakes commented on Sun Nov 24 2019

I intend to transfer this to https://github.com/dotnet/wpf but no longer have permission to do so. However this may be related to a GitHub outage seen today, so will try again later before escalating.

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@sharwell commented on Sun Nov 24 2019

@terrajobst can you transfer this issue for us?

[drewnoakes]

@rladuca would you please move the Developer Community ticket to the appropriate WPF area path?

[arpitmathur]

@rainersigwald Have you seen something like this before? Does this look like an msbuild issue?

[rainersigwald]

@benvillalobos, can you take a look at this repro and see where things are going wrong?

[rladuca]

@benvillalobos Did you ever get to look into this?

[benvillalobos]

@rladuca Not yet unfortunately. I'm currently focused on a high priority bug, but this is still on my to-do list.

[soul4soul]

Still appears to be a bug doing a rebuild fixed my problem. Possibly related, changing the image build type from None to Resource added 2 itemgroups to the csproj file. One to remove the image and one to include it. I manually removed the itemgroup for removing the resource. Then I performed a rebuild and things started to work.

  <ItemGroup>
    <Resource Remove="Images\info.png" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Mono.Options" Version="6.6.0.161" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Resource Include="Images\info.png" />
  </ItemGroup>

[verelpode]

WPF is a red herring because this problem also affects non-WPF projects that target SDK/NETFW/5, such as non-WPF Console projects for ASP.NET 5, or a Windows Service, or stuff for MS Azure.
"Build Action" = "Resource" is not only for WPF projects. Any app, including non-WPF Console programs, can use System.Resources.ResourceManager (alternatively System.Resources.ResourceReader) to read these resources at runtime.

I've written detailed notes about this in the later message in dotnet/project-system#4534 (comment)