Signing mixed code assembly

Question

I have a mixed assambly written in C++ managed and unmanaged. To sign this assembly I use delayed signing with the following Post-build event:

sn -R $(TargetPath) $(ProjectDir)Fischer.snk

This works without any problems on my own PC (VS2010 english, Windows XP 32Bit).

If I transfer this project on another PC (VS2010 german, Win7 32Bit), this build step failes with an error message.

Fehler   1          error MSB3073: Der Befehl "sn -R C:\Daten\APRGX\DotNet\VisualData\Master3DControlClasses\Project\Debug\Fischer.APRGX.MathAlg.Native.dll c:\Daten\APRGX\DotNet\MathAlg\Native\Fischer.snk :VCEnd" wurde mit dem Code 1 beendet.         C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets            113       6          Fischer.APRGX.MathAlg.Native

What can be the reason?

Edit: Starting the tool in command prompt it says:

"C:\Daten\APRGX\DotNet\VisualData\Master3DControlClasses\Project\Debug\Fischer.APRGX.MathAlg.Native.dll" stellt keine Assembly mit einem starken Namen dar.

It says that the dll doesn't have a strong name. I don't understand that, because the same project builds without problems on my first machine.

Type the command by hand from the Visual Studio Command Prompt to get a better diagnostic. — Hans Passant, Sep 29 '11 at 13:32
-R is used for *resigning* an assembly. It must have been delay signed before. Seems that wasn't done. /DELAYSIGN linker option. — Hans Passant, Sep 30 '11 at 05:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '11 at 08:02

I found the solution: The problem was that on my original PC I'm using VS2010 and on the second PC I'm using VS2010 SP1.

VS2010 without SP1 stores in project file:

    <Link>
  <GenerateDebugInformation>true</GenerateDebugInformation>
  <AdditionalDependencies>
  </AdditionalDependencies>
  <KeyFile>$(ProjectDir)Fischer.snk</KeyFile>
  <DelaySign>true</DelaySign>
</Link>

VS2010 with SP1 stores:

    <LinkKeyFile>$(ProjectDir)Fischer.snk</LinkKeyFile>
<LinkDelaySign>true</LinkDelaySign>

So VS2010 with SP1 igonores the /DELAYSIGN option that was set without SP1. And so sn.exe couldn't sign the assembly.

Installing SP1 on my original PC and setting the delay sign option again solved the problem.

Signing mixed code assembly

1 Answers1