how to make a Visual Studio project file to copy indirect references?

Question

As the screenshot shows, ClassLibrary1 relies on ClassLibrary2 and ClassLibrary2 relies on ClassLibrary3. And "Copy Local" is set to be "True". But when I compile ClassLibrary1, ClassLibrary3 won't be copied to the bin folder.

So how can I config the Visual Studio project file to make it copy indirect references?

Answer 1

I don't think that this is possible.

If you want the indirect references to be copied locally, you will have to add a direct reference to them to each project that you want them to be in.

If you try to build the project using MSBuild you will probably be informed that the indirect dependency is missing; Visual Studio usually ignores the missing indirect dependencies if you aren't directly using anything from them.

Answer 2

This question has already been asked here.

@competent_tech is correct in that this is not possible with Visual Studio alone. However, Alex Yakunin solved his problem with a custom MSBuild target.