How Can a C++ Windows Dll Be Merged into a C# Application Exe

How can a C++ windows dll be merged into a C# application exe?

Single Assembly Deployment of Managed and Unmanaged Code
Sunday, February 4, 2007

.NET developers love XCOPY deployment. And they love single assembly components. At least I always feel kinda uneasy, if I have to use some component and need remember a list of files to also include with the main assembly of that component. So when I recently had to develop a managed code component and had to augment it with some unmanaged code from a C DLL (thx to Marcus Heege for helping me with this!), I thought about how to make it easier to deploy the two DLLs. If this were just two assemblies I could have used ILmerge to pack them up in just one file. But this doesn´t work for mixed code components with managed as well as unmanaged DLLs.

So here´s what I came up with for a solution:

I include whatever DLLs I want to deploy with my component´s main assembly as embedded resources.
Then I set up a class constructor to extract those DLLs like below. The class ctor is called just once within each AppDomain so it´s a neglible overhead, I think.

namespace MyLib
{
    public class MyClass
    {
        static MyClass()
        {
            ResourceExtractor.ExtractResourceToFile("MyLib.ManagedService.dll", "managedservice.dll");
            ResourceExtractor.ExtractResourceToFile("MyLib.UnmanagedService.dll", "unmanagedservice.dll");
        }

        ...

In this example I included two DLLs as resources, one being an unmanaged code DLL, and one being a managed code DLL (just for demonstration purposes), to show, how this technique works for both kinds of code.

The code to extract the DLLs into files of their own is simple:

public static class ResourceExtractor
{
    public static void ExtractResourceToFile(string resourceName, string filename)
    {
        if (!System.IO.File.Exists(filename))
            using (System.IO.Stream s = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
                using (System.IO.FileStream fs = new System.IO.FileStream(filename, System.IO.FileMode.Create))
                {
                    byte[] b = new byte[s.Length];
                    s.Read(b, 0, b.Length);
                    fs.Write(b, 0, b.Length);
                }
    }
}

Working with a managed code assembly like this is the same as usual - almost. You reference it (here: ManagedService.dll) in your component´s main project (here: MyLib), but set the Copy Local property to false. Additionally you link in the assembly as an Existing Item and set the Build Action to Embedded Resource.

For the unmanaged code (here: UnmanagedService.dll) you just link in the DLL as an Existing Item and set the Build Action to Embedded Resource. To access its functions use the DllImport attribute as usual, e.g.

[DllImport("unmanagedservice.dll")] public extern static int Add(int a, int b);

That´s it! As soon as you create the first instance of the class with the static ctor the embedded DLLs get extracted into files of their own and are ready to use as if you deployed them as separate files. As long as you have write permissions for the execution directory this should work fine for you. At least for prototypical code I think this way of single assembly deployment is quite convenient.

Enjoy!

http://weblogs.asp.net/ralfw/archive/2007/02/04/single-assembly-deployment-of-managed-and-unmanaged-code.aspx

Merge DLL into EXE?

For .NET Framework 4.5

ILMerge.exe /target:winexe /targetplatform:"v4,C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0" /out:finish.exe insert1.exe insert2.dll

ILMerge

1. Open CMD and cd to your directory. Let's say: cd C:\test
2. Insert the above code.
3. /out:finish.exe replace finish.exe with any filename you want.
4. Behind the /out:finish.exe you have to give the files you want to be
   combined.

Embedding an external executable inside a C# program

Here is some sample code that would roughly accomplish this, minus error checking of any sort. Also, please make sure that the license of the program to be embedded allows this sort of use.

// extracts [resource] into the the file specified by [path]
void ExtractResource( string resource, string path )
{
    Stream stream = GetType().Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream( resource );
    byte[] bytes = new byte[(int)stream.Length];
    stream.Read( bytes, 0, bytes.Length );
    File.WriteAllBytes( path, bytes );
}

string exePath = "c:\temp\embedded.exe";
ExtractResource( "myProj.embedded.exe", exePath );
// run the exe...
File.Delete( exePath );

The only tricky part is getting the right value for the first argument to ExtractResource. It should have the form "namespace.name", where namespace is the default namespace for your project (find this under Project | Properties | Application | Default namespace). The second part is the name of the file, which you'll need to include in your project (make sure to set the build option to "Embedded Resource"). If you put the file under a directory, e.g. Resources, then that name becomes part of the resource name (e.g. "myProj.Resources.Embedded.exe"). If you're having trouble, try opening your compiled binary in Reflector and look in the Resources folder. The names listed here are the names that you would pass to GetManifestResourceStream.

Launch Dll using C# program

To do what your code example does, use the following C# code:

public static class DllHelper
{
    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Dll1.dll")]
    public static extern int function1();
}

private void buttonStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        DllHelper.function1();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
    }
}      

The above example is a C# program that calls a function in non .NET based DLL.
The example below is a C# program that calls a function in a .NET based DLL.

try
{
    System.Reflection.Assembly dll1 = System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile("Dll1.dll");
    if (dll1 != null)
    {
        object obj = dll1.CreateInstance("Function1Class");
        if (obj != null)
        {
            System.Reflection.MethodInfo mi = obj.GetType().GetMethod("function1");
            mi.Invoke(obj, new object[0]);
        }
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}

Is any of the the 2 examples what you want?
Or are you trying to call a C# function in a DLL from your example code?

Running a C# executable outside of folder containing external library

There should be several options that should work.

The problem is that the library is not in the path.

This might help. "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/6taasyc6%28v=vs.100%29.aspx".
You would just need to always have the library in the same location.

You could add the it to the path variable (though this could cause conflicts elsewhere).
You could add the folder to the temporary path, i.e. the console whenever it starts up.
You could add it to the relative path "Visual Studio: how to set path to dll?"

Hopefully that helps

Embedding DLLs in a compiled executable

I highly recommend to use Costura.Fody - by far the best and easiest way to embed resources in your assembly. It's available as NuGet package.

Install-Package Costura.Fody

After adding it to the project, it will automatically embed all references that are copied to the output directory into your main assembly. You might want to clean the embedded files by adding a target to your project:

Install-CleanReferencesTarget

You'll also be able to specify whether to include the pdb's, exclude certain assemblies, or extracting the assemblies on the fly. As far as I know, also unmanaged assemblies are supported.

Update

Currently, some people are trying to add support for DNX.

Update 2

For the lastest Fody version, you will need to have MSBuild 16 (so Visual Studio 2019). Fody version 4.2.1 will do MSBuild 15. (reference: Fody is only supported on MSBuild 16 and above. Current version: 15)

How to package dlls in the compiled executable of a C# project in Visual Studio 2010

Try ILMERGE it may use to merge native dll
ILMERGE

Packing an exe + dll into one executable (not .NET)

Have a look at Thinstall ThinApp

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