Setting GenerateAssemblyInfo=false stops source generator from running

[MagicAndre1981]

Describe the Bug

After Updating ThisAssembly to from 1.5.0 to 2.0.0 I can no longer access the ThisAssembly.Info properties like ThisAssembly.Info.Description

As they come from 3rd party tools, not from my project:

Steps to Reproduce

update from "ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo" to 2.0:

<PackageReference Include="ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo" Version="2.0.0">

Expected Behavior

code can be called var Description = ThisAssembly.Info.Description; fine as in 1.5.0

In my csproj I have set thoise 2 entries:

<EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>true</EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>
<CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>Generated</CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>

and I no longer see the genereted ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo.g.cs file only the ApplicationConfiguration.g.cs which includes the generated calls for ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize();

[kzu]

Hi there! Some questions:

• Is this an intellisense or a build error? (Try filtering for build in the error list)
• Does it also fail when doing dotnet build in the CLI?
• Does closing and reopening the solution make a difference?

Thanks!

[kzu]

I created a new console app, added the package, and verified that the intellisense doesn't work at first, but after first build, it does. Seems to be something in VS since I'm not doing anything different on that front.

[kzu]

If you delete bin/obj without closing the source file, you see the same effect:

(note the Build + Intellisense in the drowdown). Doing a "full build" fixes it automatically though.

Does that match your experience?

[MagicAndre1981]

closing/reopening make no different and also deleting the obj nuget folder makes no difference.

This is a compile error as the generated class is not found I can't compile the project at all no matter if I try it from VS2022 or cli with dotnet.

[kzu]

Could you share which package you're using? ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo or ThisAssembly (metadata package)?
Also, would you mind creating a blank console app, adding the same package and using WriteLine as I did above? If you see the same error, would you mind running dotnet build -bl and attaching the binlog? 🙏

[MagicAndre1981]

I use this one:

https://www.nuget.org/packages/ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo/2.0.0

and before updating I was using the 1.5.0 version which is now unlisted?

https://www.nuget.org/packages/ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo/1.5.0

I'm now out of office for the rest of the day, I'll try to compare the build with 1.5.0 and 2.0.0 tomorrow.

[kzu]

Yeah, I have unlisted 1.5 in favor of 2.0.

[MagicAndre1981]

ok, comparing 1.5.0 and 2.0.0 shows that 2.0.0 nuget misses the actual generator dll ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo.dll and so this is no wonder why no code is generated. The thisassembly.constants package still contains the ThisAssembly.Constants.dll so consts are translated into code. 🤔 Why is the dll missing? What have you changed?

And I'm not allowed to provide such a binlog (GDPR).

[MagicAndre1981]

Why is the dll missing? What have you changed?

ok, after looking at the commits (which are horrible as there are a lot of meaningless commits "Bump files with dotnet-file sync" which is awfull to see what commits do, you need to check every commit what is changed) I found this commit.

This explains the dependency on ThisAssembly.Constants and here is my issue. With MSBuild Structured Log Viewer I can see that the task to transfer my assembly infos into constants is not called so the Constants Source generator can only transfer my dummy constants I've added to check if this code generator is called.

[kzu]

ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo is indeed just a special case of Contants (most packages are, now). That should not be the issue at all.

Could you please create a repro project? I simply cannot reproduce your issue as-is. The fact that those targets are greyed out do not indicate much (could have run previously already, for example). Without either a repro project or a binlog, there isn't much I can do :(

you need to check every commit what is changed

Not really, you can just look at commits that actually affect the specific project folder or files. dotnet-file sync keeps my template repo in sync only, which involves gh workflows, markdown text, and so on. Nothing in C# files in most cases.

[MagicAndre1981]

I've created a demo that works fine with 1.5.0 and fails with 2.0.3. It is an empty .net 8 WinForms application but includes all reference nugets as in my real application but it depends on subversion for version control.

You need to checkout the code from the repo with svn/TortoiseSVN and open the sln in trunk

ThisAssembly.AssemblyInfo.Demo_SVN_Repo.zip

If I downgrade the package to 1.5.0 I get the generated files.

[MagicAndre1981]

Could you please create a repro project? I simply cannot reproduce your issue as-is.

Did you have some time to look at it? You need use svn checkout file:/// with path to create a working copy and get the project.

[OoLunar]

Able to reproduce as a first party consumer and with `dotnet build` in CLI.

[OoLunar]

This seems to only happen when upgrading from a previous version. Remove ThisAssembly from your csproj file, run dotnet clean, then readd the updated version through: dotnet add package ThisAssembly --version 2.0.3

[kzu]

Roslyn does heavy caching of intermediate files. I'd suggest deleting bin/obj recursively and try again.

I do not have or use svn to test this locally from the provided zip. I doubt it has anything to do with source control, to a simple zip of the actual sources should be enough if it does repro.

[MagicAndre1981]

As already said, clearing obj/bin makes no difference.

without svn the code doesn't compile as I've added Unclassified.NetRevisionTask I also use in my project. You wanted all references, you get all references in the demo

[MagicAndre1981]

ok, I found the cause. Setting GenerateAssemblyInfo to false prevents the constant translation, setting it back to true makes your generator works again and I can see the files under Generated\ThisAssembly.Constants\ThisAssembly.ConstantsGenerator But I have to set this to false, otherwise I Unclassified.NetRevisionTask doesn't work and I don't see the svn revision in the file version

[kzu]

That's great actionable investigation, thanks! I'll look into it ASAP.

[kzu]

Got the fix 💪 #422

[MagicAndre1981]

Got the fix 💪 #422

nope, still the same error. The translation to constants runs but generates crap (Company gets project name, version is 1.0.0.0 not my version from Unclassified.NetRevisionTask) so the default values. And the Copyright, Description from AssemblyInfo.cs are not translated and so I still have compile error CS0117: 'ThisAssembly.Info' does not contain a definition for 'Description'

And when I update the nuget in my demo project to 2.0.4 I get this error:

Generated\ThisAssembly.Constants\ThisAssembly.ConstantsGenerator\Info.Company.g.cs(17,15,17,27): error CS0101: The namespace '<global namespace>' already contains a definition for 'ThisAssembly'

[kzu]

It looks like whatever you're using is not playing nice and is generating a non-partial ThisAssembly. Plz bring the issue to them.

Without a repro, it's kinda impossible to see what you see. All my tests and daily usage shows it's working as designed. I have never used that Unclassidified thing.

[MagicAndre1981]

Without a repro, it's kinda impossible to see what you see. All my tests and daily usage shows it's working as designed. I have never used that Unclassidified thing.

I've posted a repro which you ignore the whole time. I'll stick on 1.5.0 which works and ignore all newer updates.

[MagicAndre1981]

and your "fix" is to ignore my configured GenerateAssemblyInfo value and set the values to the data which the SDK sets when GenerateAssemblyInfo is true. And this is what I DON'T want. I set the value to false for reasons!

[kzu]

I do not have or use svn to test this locally from the provided zip. I doubt it has anything to do with source control, to a simple zip of the actual sources should be enough if it does repro.

That is not something I can work off of as a repro. Plz provide a github repo if that is easier for you.

Could you elaborate on why it's what you DON'T WANT, what I did? I studied the SDK targets carefully and there's no side effect from my fix. You might disagree with how I fixed it, but that's a different matter. What side effect are you seeing that is problematic? Please provide a clean repro I can simply clone or download (without having to install any software), and I can look at it.

[kzu]

Also, I'd be more than happy to review a PR that fixes it in a better way for your scenario.

[MagicAndre1981]

Again, there is a sideeffect, your changes causes that data are read from the csproj and no longer from my AssemblyInfo.cs and this causes issues with my consumed Unclassified.NetRevisionTask package. It doesn't support this and the subversion revision is not added to the version. I have to do this as there is no Subversion SourceLink provider , so I need to add the SVN revision to the version number to see which version the user is running so that I can checkout this revision to debug the issue. So I MUST set GenerateAssemblyInfo to false. And as I use Subversion, putting this on Github is useless 🤦. I debugged the issue, found the casue, provided you a repro and you only complain and complain.

I've add the working thisassembly.assemblyinfo.1.5.0.nupkg now to my solution and added a source entry to the nuget.config to use this solution folder as source, so that restore always works and I'll ignore now all updates of your package and use 1.5.0 until something breaks it

[kzu]

Well, I guess you can also report to that Unclassified.NetRevisionTask package that they are incompatible with this package.

As I mentioned, I'd gladly take a PR if this is critical for you. I don't have the bandwidth to do this for free, and this is the first and only time someone ever reported such an issue.

Thanks.