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c#dockerwinui-3winuiwindows-container

How can I build a self-contained C# WinUI application from within a Windows Docker container (`XamlCompiler.exe` exits with code `-1073741515`)?

I'm attempting to build Microsoft's cs-winui-unpackaged sample from within a Windows Docker container running on a Windows 10 Pro 19045.3208 host, however it's failing due to the following error:

MSBuild version 17.3.2+561848881 for .NET
  Determining projects to restore...
  Restored C:\application\SelfContainedDeployment.csproj (in 12.09 sec).
C:\Users\ContainerUser\.nuget\packages\microsoft.windowsappsdk\1.3.230331000\buildTransitive\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup.Compiler.interop.targets(590,9): error MSB3073: The command ""C:\Users\ContainerUser\.nuget\packages\microsoft.windowsappsdk\1.3.230331000\buildTransitive\..\tools\net5.0\..\net472\XamlCompiler.exe" "obj\arm64\Release\net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win10-arm64\\input.json" "obj\arm64\Release\net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win10-arm64\\output.json"" exited with code -1073741515. [C:\application\SelfContainedDeployment.csproj]

I'm using the following command on the host machine to run the build:

docker run `
  --platform windows `
  --rm `
  --interactive `
  --tty `
  --mount "type=bind,source=$PWD,target=C:\application" `
  --workdir /application `
  mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:6.0 `
  dotnet publish --configuration Release

So far I haven't been able to find any concrete information about the XamlCompiler error code in question.

What does this error mean, and what do I need to do to fix the build?

Solution

  • TL;DR: you must use an image bases on server-core like mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2022

    Teardown:

    1. windows-app-sdk hard-coded the usage of a net framework 4.7 exe.

    Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup.Compiler.interop.targets from the windows-app-sdk nuget contains a hard-coded path to net472\XamlCompiler.exe.

        <PropertyGroup Condition="$(XamlCompilerExePath) == ''">
        <XamlCompilerExePath>$(_MuxPackageToolsFolder)..\net472\XamlCompiler.exe</XamlCompilerExePath>
    </PropertyGroup>

    It's still this way in 1.5!:

    It's still this way in 1.5

    2. this net472\XamlCompiler.exe NEEDS a full 4.7.x net framwork on the OS

    Nanoserver does not contain the classic net framework.

    You must use an image bases on WindowsServerCore which contains a full net framework.

    3. theoretically setting /p:UseXamlCompilerExecutable=false should work

    This forces msbuild to use the net5 assemblies instead of the 4.7 exe.

    The switch works, but it leads to a new issue.

    c:\cache\nuget_packages\microsoft.windowsappsdk\1.3.230724000\buildTransitive\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup.Compiler.interop.targets(505,9): error MSB4062: The "Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup.Compiler.Tasks.CompileXaml" task could not be loaded from the assembly c:\cache\nuget_packages\microsoft.windowsappsdk\1.3.230724000\buildTransitive\..\tools\net5.0\Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Markup.Compiler.dll. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Security.Permissions, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc7b13ffcd2ddd51'. The system cannot find the file specified. Confirm that the <UsingTask> declaration is correct, that the assembly and all its dependencies are available, and that the task contains a public class that implements Microsoft.Build.Framework.ITask. [C:\builds\MyProject\MyProject.app\src\MyProjectApp\MyProjectApp\MyProjectApp.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0]

    4. meanwhile issues have been created on github