Unexpected error when refencing an F# project from a C# project

[francotiveron]

Version Used:

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022
Version 17.8.2
VisualStudio.17.Release/17.8.2+34322.80
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.8.09037

Installed Version: Professional

ADL Tools Service Provider 1.0
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ASA Service Provider 1.0

ASP.NET and Web Tools 17.8.358.6298
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Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 17.8.358.6298
Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0

Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio 2.6.5000.0
Microsoft Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio

Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 17.8.358.6298
Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools

Azure Stream Analytics Tools for Visual Studio 2.6.5000.0
Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics Tools for Visual Studio

C# Tools 4.8.0-7.23572.1+7b75981cf3bd520b86ec4ed00ec156c8bc48e4eb
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Common Azure Tools 1.10
Provides common services for use by Azure Mobile Services and Microsoft Azure Tools.

Cookiecutter 17.0.23262.1
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Extensibility Message Bus 1.4.39 (main@e8108eb)
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File Differ 3.0.49
The easiest way to diff two files directly in Solution Explorer

ILSpy.AddIn 1.0
Integration of the ILSpy Decompiler into Visual Studio.

Microsoft Azure Hive Query Language Service 2.6.5000.0
Language service for Hive query

Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics Language Service 2.6.5000.0
Language service for Azure Stream Analytics

Microsoft Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2.9
Support for Azure Cloud Services projects

Microsoft JVM Debugger 1.0
Provides support for connecting the Visual Studio debugger to JDWP compatible Java Virtual Machines

Mono Debugging for Visual Studio 17.8.17 (957fbed)
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NuGet Package Manager 6.8.0
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Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 17.6.34024.01
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Python - Django support 17.0.23262.1
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Python - Profiling support 17.0.23262.1
Profiling support for Python projects.

Python with Pylance 17.0.23262.1
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Razor (ASP.NET Core) 17.8.3.2353105+f0a326f3e15b2370371693a76fd379635387c74d
Provides languages services for ASP.NET Core Razor.

SQL Server Data Tools 17.8.119.0
Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools

Text Macros for Visual Studio 2012-2022 1.18
Brings back text-editing macro support in Visual Studio 2012-2022

ToolWindowHostedEditor 1.0
Hosting json editor into a tool window

TypeScript Tools 17.0.20920.2001
TypeScript Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Visual Basic Tools 4.8.0-7.23572.1+7b75981cf3bd520b86ec4ed00ec156c8bc48e4eb
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Visual F# Tools 17.8.0-beta.23475.2+10f956e631a1efc0f7f5e49c626c494cd32b1f50
Microsoft Visual F# Tools

Visual Studio IntelliCode 2.2
AI-assisted development for Visual Studio.

VisualStudio.DeviceLog 1.0
Information about my package

VisualStudio.Mac 1.0
Mac Extension for Visual Studio

VSPackage Extension 1.0
VSPackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

Workflow Manager Tools 1.0 1.0
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Xamarin 17.8.0.155 (d17-8@7042beb)
Visual Studio extension to enable development for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android.

Xamarin Designer 17.8.3.6 (remotes/origin/d17-8@eccf46a291)
Visual Studio extension to enable Xamarin Designer tools in Visual Studio.

Xamarin Templates 17.8.16 (830b56a)
Templates for building iOS, Android, and Windows apps with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms.

Xamarin.Android SDK 13.2.2.0 (d17-5/45b0e14)
Xamarin.Android Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support.
Mono: d9a6e87
Java.Interop: xamarin/java.interop/d17-5@149d70fe
SQLite: xamarin/sqlite@68c69d8
Xamarin.Android Tools: xamarin/xamarin-android-tools/d17-5@ca1552d

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac SDK 16.4.0.23 (9defd91b3)
Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support.
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
Create solution with 3 projects

P2.fsproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
      <TargetFramework>net4.8</TargetFramework>
      <GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="Class2.fs" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="NinjaTrader.Core">
        <HintPath>..\..\..\..\..\Program Files\NinjaTrader 8\bin\NinjaTrader.Core.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Update="FSharp.Core" Version="7.0.400-beta.23251.2" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

P3.csproj

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
	  <Platforms>x64</Platforms>
	  <TargetFramework>net4.8</TargetFramework>
	  <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
	  <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
	  <LangVersion>Latest</LangVersion>
	  <RootNamespace>HF</RootNamespace>
  </PropertyGroup>
	<ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="NinjaTrader.Core">
	    <HintPath>..\..\..\..\..\Program Files\NinjaTrader 8\bin\NinjaTrader.Core.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

P1.csproj

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Library</OutputType>
    <Platforms>x64</Platforms>
    <TargetFramework>net4.8</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
	<ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="NinjaTrader.Core">
	    <HintPath>..\..\..\..\..\Program Files\NinjaTrader 8\bin\NinjaTrader.Core.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\P2\P2.fsproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="..\P3\P3.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

2. Add the single source code file, respectively

Class2.fs

namespace P2

open NinjaTrader.NinjaScript

type Class2(host: IndicatorBase) = class end

Class3.cs

using NinjaTrader.NinjaScript;

namespace P3 {
    public class Class3 {
        IndicatorBase _host;

        public Class3(IndicatorBase host)
        {
            _host = host;
        }
    }
}

Class1.cs

using NinjaTrader.NinjaScript;

namespace P1 {
    internal class Class1 : IndicatorBase {
        P2.Class2 _c2;
        P3.Class3 _c3;

        public Class1()
        {
            _c2 = new P2.Class2(this);
            _c3 = new P3.Class3(this);
        }
    }
}

Note:

• All the 3 projects reference a local DLL NinjaTrader.Core.dll (where the type IndicatorBase is defined)
• That DLL is installed as part of the application NinjaTrader, not sure if this occurs with others DLLs
• P2 and P3 both define a single class with identical shape (different names and language)
• P1 references both P2 and P3

Expected Behavior:
Code should compile without errors

Actual Behavior:
Visual studio complains on the instantiation of Class2 in Class1, but not on Class3; the error is

Error CS0012 The type 'IndicatorBase' is defined in an assembly that
is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly
'NinjaTrader.Core, Version=8.1.2.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=0907d8af90186095'. P1 C:\Temp\Ninja\Test1\Solution1\P1\Class1.cs

[jasonmalinowski]

@francotiveron If you try to build the solution, does it still build with the build gesture? Or does that fail too?

[francotiveron]

@jasonmalinowski It fails with the same error

[jasonmalinowski]

Then can you do a command line build and pass the /bl switch? That'll produce a binary log file that we can investigate further with. That file can potentially contain private info, so if you want to email me the file directly my email is on my GitHub profile.

[francotiveron]

msbuild.binlog (481K) sent to your email

[jasonmalinowski]

Thanks for sending over the binlog. I see that The NinjaTrader.Core from "C:\Program Files\NinjaTrader 8\bin\NinjaTrader.Core.dll" " is being passed to the compiler. But when P1 was being built the underlying assembly resolution logic did say this:

Considered "C:\Temp\Ninja\Test1\Solution1\P2\bin\Debug\net4.8\NinjaTrader.Core.dll",
			but its name "NinjaTrader.Core, Version=8.1.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null"
			didn't match the expected name "NinjaTrader.Core, Version=8.1.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0907d8af90186095".

This makes me think the problem here is there are two versions of NinjaTrader.Core floating around: one has a strong name (PublicKeyToken = 0907d8af90186095) and one does not have a strong name, and those are considered different per assembly resolution logic. The follow up question then is "where did the two copies come from?" Unfortunately your binlog doesn't show a build for P2 or P3 (just that they're up to date), but if you do a clean and build again, does the problem go away? Otherwise we might need a new binlog where not only passing /bl you are also passing /t:Rebuild to force a rebuild.

[jasonmalinowski]

(and marking this as Area-Compilers rather than Area-IDE since it's definitely not an IDE problem. I suspect this is still a build going funny in some way though and not really a compiler issue either.)

[francotiveron]

Solution Cleaned
msbuild /bl /t:Rebuild
log file sent

[jasonmalinowski]

@dotnet/fsharp-team-msft do you think you can take a look at this as a next step of investigation? It seems that the F# assembly is being recorded as having a reference to an assembly with a public key token, but the build shows it's getting the same input as the C# compiler. I don't see where the public key token for the reference is coming from anywhere else, so it almost feels like this is an F# compiler bug (although I don't know how!)

[jasonmalinowski]

The invocation of Fsc is this. The FusionName that's tacked on by RAR implies it's PublicKeyToken=null:

But RAR when it's processing the consuming C# project:

[francotiveron]

So how do I fix it? Or is it a bug?

[jasonmalinowski]

@francotiveron Don't know yet, but at this point I'm not sure it's a Roslyn issue. We're getting the F# team to take a look.

[vzarytovskii]

@dotnet/fsharp-team-msft do you think you can take a look at this as a next step of investigation? It seems that the F# assembly is being recorded as having a reference to an assembly with a public key token, but the build shows it's getting the same input as the C# compiler. I don't see where the public key token for the reference is coming from anywhere else, so it almost feels like this is an F# compiler bug (although I don't know how!)

I'm not entirely sure how can that happen, but 17.7 ships with quite old compiler, we've had a bunch of fixes since.

Does the same issue show with 17.8/17.9?

@jasonmalinowski also - isn't Fsc task in binlog showing what was passed to it as reference when msbuild is invoking it?

[jasonmalinowski]

@jasonmalinowski also - isn't Fsc task in binlog showing what was passed to it as reference when msbuild is invoking it?

Yeah that's why I'm confused. I see the reference going in that looks like it doesn't have a public key token. But later when we try processing the output of it, it seems like output did have one. And to be very clear, I can't explain how the compiler could make a mistake like that, but I'm not seeing any alternative either. :-/

Actually @francotiveron that might be one more thing to ask: can you upload the P2.dll file that gets built? You can upload that here, no reason to email.

[KevinRansom]

@francotiveron , could I get the binary log file to look at.

[jasonmalinowski]

I've shared the logs internally.