Find unused / unnecessary assemblyBinding redirects

Question

It seems like there is so many binding redirects in our web.config that I either:

1. look unnecessary
2. are for assemblies I don't see being referenced anywhere in our solution

This is just a sample of some portion of the binding redirects:

  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Azure.KeyVault.Core" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="2.0.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.Services.Client" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.8.3.0" newVersion="5.8.3.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.OData" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.8.3.0" newVersion="5.8.3.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.Edm" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.8.3.0" newVersion="5.8.3.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.2.1" newVersion="4.0.2.1" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Owin.Security" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.0.0" newVersion="4.0.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SqlServer.Types" publicKeyToken="89845dcd8080cc91" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="10.0.0.0-11.0.0.0" newVersion="14.0.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Threading.Tasks.Extensions" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.1.1.0" newVersion="4.1.1.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.ValueTuple" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.2.0" newVersion="4.0.2.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Helpers" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-5.2.4.0" newVersion="5.2.4.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-2.5.1.0" newVersion="2.5.1.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>

I think that at some point Visual Studio decided to add lots of them automatically.

Is there a way to verify if any of the binding redirects are needed or automatically verify / remove them?

Answer 1

The solution to this is actually quite simple and elegant.

1. Remove all your binding redirects in Web.config / app.config;
2. Go to Package Manager Console;
3. Enter the command Add-BindingRedirect (you can also specify a target project using -ProjectName "SpecificProject");
4. All necessary binding redirects are generated;
5. Run your application and see if it works properly. If not, add any missing binding redirects that the command missed.