Remove signing from an assembly

c#, clr, delay-sign, enyim.caching, visual-studio-2012

Solution

In this case, the problem is a project "common properties" reference.

Inside of the project .csproj file is this innocuous little line:

<Import Project="..\build\CommonProperties.targets" />

Unfortunately, the file (`CommonProperties.targets`) instructs VS to re-write the properties, but it does not provide any clear indication in the user interface that this is taking place.

The solution is to go into the `CommonProperties.targets` file and delete the following lines:

<!-- delay sign the assembly if the PrivateKeyPath property is not specified -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyPath)' == '' And '$(PrivateKeyName)' == ''">
    <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>..\public_key.snk</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
    <DelaySign>true</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>

<!-- sign the assembly using the specified key file containing both the private and public keys -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyPath)' != '' ">
    <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>$(PrivateKeyPath)</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
    <DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>

<!-- sign the assembly using the specified key container containing both the private and public keys -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PrivateKeyName)' != '' ">
    <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile></AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
    <DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
</PropertyGroup>

Replace those lines with the following:

  <PropertyGroup>
    <DelaySign>false</DelaySign>
    <SignAssembly>false</SignAssembly>
  </PropertyGroup>

Problem

I have a project open in Visual Studio (it happens to be Enyim.Caching). This assembly wants to be delay-signed. In fact, it desires so strongly to be delay-signed, that I am unable to force Visual studio to compile it without delay signing. I have unchecked "Delay sign only" and "Sign the assembly" on the Visual Studio project properties box, and rebuilt. The assembly is still marked for delay sign (as shown by `sn.exe -v`). I have unloaded the project and verified that the signing is set to false. When reloading the project, the check boxes for "Sign" and "Delay Sign" are checked. I have verified that no attributes are present in the AssemblyInfo (or elsewhere) that would cause this. I have searched the Internet for a solution, but have found none. How can I do this?

Original source