What is the best way to determine how a missing reference in a Visual Studio project can be found?

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2008 and I'm trying to get a project that I didn't create to build.

In the references folder of this project there are four DLLs with the exclamation icon whose Path property is empty. The in the .csproj file points to an output directory which I don't think is the initial location of these DLLs.

I believe that I have the most recent copies of the DLLs in question (they are used in several related projects). I could place them in this project's directory but I want to determine their original location so I don't have to modify the project and solution files (which are used by other developers in other remote locations).

I would ask the original developers but they're located in a time zone where it's 1 a.m. so I though someone here could help me out.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Open the .csproj file in a text editor an locate the missing references.

If the entry is like this:

<Reference Include="AssemblyName"/>

then it's located in the default folder for that application and somewhere on the search path.

If the entry is like this:

<Reference Include="AssemblyName">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>Path\AssemblyName.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

Then the file should be put in the folder referred to by Path.