Remove ref project for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing

[wtgodbe]

In #2483, we added a ref project for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing: https://github.com/aspnet/Extensions/blob/release/3.0/src/TestingUtils/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing/ref/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing.csproj. This is a non-shipping test utility project that should not need a ref project - we should determine why this was added, and figure out how to remove it.

Related - #2781 explicitly marked this ref project nonshipping - it had been getting the default value of IsShipping=true from Arcade, which caused Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing to list a dependency on a stable version of that package, which will never exist.

CC @dougbu @JunTaoLuo

[dougbu]

@wtgodbe please retry your test removal of the ref/ project. I suspect the repo wasn't clean after doing that removal, leading to holdover use of the previous ref/ assembly and leading to errors about missing internals. Note Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing.csproj has <InternalsVisibleTo Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing.Tests" />.

The bottom line here is either

1. The ref/ assembly should never have been created since it's not used elsewhere.
2. The ref/ assembly was a shortcut to work around a deeper problem in the Extensions build infrastructure.

[wtgodbe]

@dougbu from a clean enlistment, I built these changes: 0684de4

Which gave these errors:

Xunit\LoggedConditionalFactDiscoverer.cs(4,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedConditionalTheoryDiscoverer.cs(5,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedTestFrameworkDiscoverer.cs(7,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedTestRunner.cs(11,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedConditionalFactDiscoverer.cs(4,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedConditionalTheoryDiscoverer.cs(5,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedTestFrameworkDiscoverer.cs(7,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]
Xunit\LoggedTestRunner.cs(11,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'AspNetCore' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?) [E:\code\aspnet\extensions\src\Logging\Logging.Testing\src\Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj]

[dougbu]

Looks very much like an issue w/ [InternalsVisibleTo].

Another possibility is ref/ assemblies from indirect dependencies aren't visible at the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing level, delivering incorrect references to the compiler. Any warnings in the build indicating something along these lines?

You've now got a binary log to check more deeply 😺

[wtgodbe]

No interesting warnings. I'm looking at the binlog locally.

[wtgodbe]

Looks like the ProjectReference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing doesn't ever get resolved or wind up in the final set of References, while the rest of the ProjectReferences do. Looking into why.

[wtgodbe]

Ok, this is why:

https://github.com/aspnet/Extensions/blob/9695ec06e00bb2357728733bb2318c1999fc7d01/eng/targets/ResolveReferences.targets#L90-L101

Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing wants to reference reference assemblies, not implementation assemblies. When the entry in _ProjectReferenceByAssemblyName for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing doesn't have RefProjectPath metadata, no entry for it gets inserted into ProjectReference. Changing the 'Reference' to an explicit 'ProjectReference' solves the problem: 12534ef

[wtgodbe]

@dougbu it turns out that:

https://github.com/aspnet/Extensions/blob/0684de4f07e149292e8a5f74507199e3360f81de/src/Logging/Logging.Testing/src/Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj#L21

Is the only instance in the repo where an implementation project References a nonshipping or non-packable project. There are other instances where we have ProjectReferences to such projects, or test/testasset projects that Reference such projects, but never an implementation project with a Reference. If we were to have another such Reference, we'd see the same issue where nothing got resolved because the Referenced project has no Ref assembly.

[wtgodbe]

As far as I can tell, we don't do #2784 (comment) in AspNetCore either.

[dougbu]

As far as I can tell, we don't do #2784 (comment) in AspNetCore either.

I'm not sure what you mean. In AspNetCore, @(Reference) items are always used when referring to implementation projects. @(ProjectReference) items there are only used between samples, tests, test assets, and similar. Deviations from this are bugs.

---

In any case, please update Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing to remove the ref/ project and change other projects to use an @(ProjectReference) item when they depend on Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing.

To make it clear what's going on later, please also mark Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing with <IsProjectReferenceProvider>false</IsProjectReferenceProvider>. Then regenerate the project list.

[wtgodbe]

I'm not sure what you mean. In AspNetCore, @(Reference) items are always used when referring to implementation projects. @(ProjectReference) items there are only used between samples, tests, test assets, and similar. Deviations from this are bugs.

What I mean is: there is no instance that I could find, in this repo or AspNetCore, of an implementation project with <Reference Include="{nonshipping project}" /> - other than:

https://github.com/aspnet/Extensions/blob/0684de4f07e149292e8a5f74507199e3360f81de/src/Logging/Logging.Testing/src/Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Testing.csproj#L21

In any case, please update Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing to remove the ref/ project and change other projects to use an @(ProjectReference) item when they depend on Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing.

To make it clear what's going on later, please also mark Microsoft.AspNetCore.Testing with false. Then regenerate the project list.

Will do.

[JunTaoLuo]

Should this work item be combined with #2787? I think removing the ref project for M.A.Testing will be a side effect when we overhaul the ref assembly logic.