How do references work in this repo? Dependent project cannot find new interface added in parent

[IanKemp]

I cloned the repo @ 3.1.9, followed BuildFromSource.md, got punched in the face a few times, but was finally able to make a build of 3.1.9.

However, things still don't seem to work quite right. I added a new public interface in Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions and want to implement it in Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core, which references the former - but when I type the interface's name in a class file in Core, it isn't found and Visual Studio prompts me to add a reference to Abstractions - which is already referenced???

The DLL for Abstractions that Core points to does contain my new interface (verified with ILSpy). ReferenceResolution.md doesn't note this as a pain point.

So I have no idea what's going on, and since I have zero experience with this repo (and getting it to even build the correct version was already an exercise in pain) I don't just want to add a project ref to Abstractions. Assistance requested.

[IanKemp]

Grabbed the repo code @ 3.1.10 but this issue persists:

• IMyInterface is defined in Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions builds successfully
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core references the built Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions.dll that I have verified to contain IMyInterface
• But, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core does not recognise IMyInterface

Why not?

[Pilchie]

@dougbu - any ideas here?

[dougbu]

The Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core project references the ref/ assembly for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions and that has not been updated according you your description. Run the following in the src/Mvc/Mvc.Abstractions/src/ folder:

dotnet msbuild /t:GenerateReferenceSource

See https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/blob/release/3.1/docs/ReferenceAssemblies.md for more information.

[IanKemp]

Thanks @dougbu - after running dotnet msbuild /t:GenerateReferenceSource I found that I also had to run .\build.cmd in the repo root before Visual Studio would accept that my new interface did indeed exist.

[IanKemp]

I also had to manually edit some of the *.Manual.cs files in the Mvc.*\ref\ subdirectories for other parts of the project to be happy.