Is there a way to specify assembly references based on build configuration in Visual Studio?
There is a way to do this, but you will have to hand edit your project files. The project files can have a Condition
attribute applied to them in many of the elements, including the one for references.
You can add these to your references to specify when the reference should be used:
<Reference Include="Product, Version=1.0.0.0" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='V1'">
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Product, Version=2.0.0.0" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='V2'">
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Product, Version=3.0.0.0" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='V3'">
</Reference>
You then define several build configurations (V1
, V2
, V3
) and each reference will be included only in the relevant chosen build configuration.
Combine this with conditional compilation symbols and #if
statements in your code and you should be able to do what you want.
A thing to be careful of if you do this is that it is easy to have Visual Studio remove the conditional attributes from the project file.
<Reference Include="log4net, Version=1.2.11.0, Culture=neutral, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
<HintPath>..\SharedLibs\log4net\$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\log4net.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
You can replace the hint path with the properties:
$(Configuration) is equivalent to Release/Debug or whatever other configuration you have. $(Platform) is equivalent to x86/x64/Any CPU
If your configuration includes Any CPU then you will need to put single quotes around $(Configuration)
Also refer to the condition options referenced by adrianbanks