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c#dllwebkitexternalilmerge

How to create a single .exe file with all its external .dlls embeded inside?

I'm done working on my Windows desktop application that kind of imitates the behaviour of desktop widget. This pseudo-widget will contain inside of it an build in browser window that uses Chrome page rendering engine. This is the reason why I'm using a WebKit .NET and all it's .dlls that comes with it.

According to this tutorial I've made my build-in web-browser. Also, I threw all WebKit .dlls inside the output folder.

To make it easier to use I want to create a single .exe file without any .dlls. I found out that the ILMerge is the tool for it.

I tried a lot of command like:

  1. "ILMerge.exe /target:Bingo.exe CFLite.dll icudt40.dll icuin40.dll icuuc40.dll JavaScriptCore.dll libcurl.dll libeay32.dll libexslt.dll libxml2.dll insert2.dll libxslt.dll objc.dll pthreadVC2.dll SQLite3.dll ssleay32.dll WebKit.dll WebKit.Interop.dll WebKitBrowser.dll /out:BingoFinal.exe"

  2. ILMerge.exe Bingo.exe /out:BingoFinal.exe

  3. And everything that was mentioned in this Thred

All these attemps brought to me this message:

  • Could not load assembly from the location 'C:\Program Files (x86) \Microsoft\ILMerge\Bingo.exe'. Skipping and processing rest of arguments. (Stackoverflow Thred)

PS I don't want to use Costura.Fody because it using .NET 4.6 I think I already tried all variation of the Command for ILMerge and it still not working.

Here is the folder with all files that I want to merge in to one file.

Thank you.

Solution

  • ILMerge can only merge Managed assemblies.

    In your case many of your dependencies are native dlls (lowercase ones usually are), and ILMerge can't deal with those.

    Merging the managed ones will probably work, but that'll unlikely answer your need as you'll still require the un-managed ones to be beside your exe at runtime.

    Costura.Fody is the proper way as it supports unmanaged/native assemblies.