Whether or not to include external DLLs in C# project
c#, dll, external, project
Solution
Its better to have them in a folder on source control and then copy them over to the debug folder on build event. This way you can manage their versions. If a newer version of some dll comes then you can replace the old one and put some comments with check in. Also if you are working in a team, then instead of copying files from debug folder to each team member, you can let each team member to use the same set of dlls from source control. If you are developing some control and want your customers to use that control then its easier for you to have a set of dependent dlls some where so that you can give those to your customer along with your .Net dlls. I had the same issue with some un-managed dlls and ended up putting them in a folder so that all the team members have the same version of the dlls. Hope this helps.
Problem
Our project has a lot of external DLLs, most but not all of which are 3rd party DLLs. Currently we do not have these DLLs included in our project. They are included in SVN and given a path to our build output directory. So, after building our project the neccessary files are there, because of SVN, but the project itself has no knowledge of them. My feeling is that we should have a folder under the root of our project named something like Dependancies or ThirdParty with all of the DLLs included there and set their build event to copy to the output directory. They would exist in SVN as well, but in the same structure as the project, not in the build output directory. The project itself only references one of these DLLs called CommunicationProc.DLL. The CommunicationProc.DLL then references all of the other DLLs. We have numerous DLLs to support different types of radio. So not all DLLs will be used, but any one of them may be used depending on the radio type. As to whether or not the DLLs should be included in the project we have differing opinions internally, some of the team beleives they should only be in SVN and not part of the project itself. Of note is that this are not .NET DLLs, most are old C DLLs. What is the accepted practice? Can someone please provide me with a compelling arguement one way or the other as to whether to include them in the project or just SVN?