AssemblyProcessor multi-targeting fix

[Ethereal77]

PR Details

This PR modifies the AssemblyProcessor project to build for both net6.0 and netstandard2.0, with the intention of allowing both the .NET Framework version of MSBuild (like the one used by Visual Studio) and the .NET 5+ version (like the one invoked by dotnet build or dotnet msbuild) to load the correct version of the Assembly Processor assembly.

Description

• AssemblyProcessor now builds net6.0 and netstandard2.0.
• Both versions are copied to deps to their corresponding subdirectory.
• Modified Stride.Core.targets to select the correct assembly based on the framework of MSBuild.
• Made GameStudio always reference the net6.0 (or newer) variant of the Assembly Processor. This is because GameStudio is not multi-targeting anymore, so there's no need to choose.
• Updated Mono.Cecil and made its version the same for both Stride.Core.AssemblyProcessor and Stride.GameStudio.
• Fixed the Assembly Processor test project. It was not compiling correctly due to missing Xunit reference.

Related Issue

This PR is based primarily in the PR #1480 by ericwj, but updated based on a recent conversation on Discord. The original issue that motivated that PR was #1479.

Motivation and Context

The Assembly Processor assemblies in deps were stale as the project wasn't compiling and updating the netstandard2.0 version anymore, which is the one used by the MSBuild invocations used by Visual Studio.

Types of changes

• [ ] Docs change / refactoring / dependency upgrade
• [x] Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• [ ] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• [ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)

Checklist

• [ ] My change requires a change to the documentation.
• [ ] I have added tests to cover my changes.
• [ ] All new and existing tests passed.

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[Ethereal77]

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[Ethereal77]

A question about one of the commits:

As of this PR Stride.Core.AssemblyProcessor can be built both for net6.0 and netstandard2.0 and it will be copied to deps. Should we delete the already compiled version we have in deps\AssemblyProcessor and instead compile it as a first step so it's fresh and up to date?

• If we should delete it (I've already done it in a commit, but can be undone), maybe it should be noted somewhere so people building Stride know it's a requirement to build first the Assembly Processor prior to building the main solution.
• If we shouldn't delete it, I can commit the updated assemblies in deps.

[tebjan]

from my understanding, the .netstandard2.0 could also just be dropped/deleted. With .NET 8 around the corner and the small community of contributors, the less complexity we have the better.

[Ethereal77]

I'd tend to agree. But as I've written in the PR, I think netstandard2.0 is still needed by the .NET Framework version of MSBuild that Visual Studio uses. Whenever I've tried to use just a .NET Core AssemblyProcessor, it has compiled with dotnet build and dotnet msbuild, but failed in Visual Studio with messages like "Can't resolve assembly reference System.Runtime 6.0" or something like that. The only reason it built up until now with just net6.0 is because there was a stale version of netstandard2.0 in the deps directory.

If / when Visual Studio can load .NET Core tasks in MSBuild, or replaces its version of MSBuild with a .NET Core one, then we can say goodbye to netstandard for good.

[Eideren]

@Ethereal77 regarding your question, we could ask users to build that one first in the worst case scenario ... I understand that library has to process the other solutions to build them properly so I could see how that would be harder than expected, still, is there no way we could build it first as part of building the game studio / the whole solution ?

[Ethereal77]

I could try to include the Assembly Processor project in the main solution, setting the order so every other project builds after it. It could also be set to build first in Stride.build I think.

However, I don't know the real reason Silicon / Xenko devs separated the Assembly Processor in its own solution, so don't know if it was to avoid some potential problem when building.

[Ethereal77]

In theory, the assembly produced by compiling the Assembly Processor is not locked because it is first copied to deps, and then also copied to a temporary directory based on its computed hash. If you build Stride and MSBuild invokes the Assembly Processor task, that assembly could become locked and unable to be overwritten until you terminate MSBuild or something. But, if you modify the Assembly Processor, its hash should change, so the new assembly should be copied to a different place and shouldn't be any problem.

Maybe we could ask xen what was the reasoning for keeping it separate.

[Eideren]

Sure, @xen2 if you could look into the above two messages.

[Ethereal77]

Ok, then I may look at try what I wrote in my comment above. Or maybe it's better to merge this and try that in another PR?

[xen2]

Ok, then I may look at try what I wrote in my comment above. Or maybe it's better to merge this and try that in another PR?

Up to you (whatever is more convenient). If you want to merge this one now, some conflicts need to be fixed. If not merging now (merging everything at once later), could you make those new changes as a separate/new PR built on top of this one Ethereal77:assemblyprocessor-fix? I think it would make it easier to review only the new changes added on top of this.

[Ethereal77]

Of course! Should I rebase this one for pulling the latest changes in master? To minimize conflicts, I mean.

[Eideren]

Just letting you know that two other PRs were merged related to some of the files you're working on: https://github.com/stride3d/stride/pull/1860 https://github.com/stride3d/stride/pull/1854 I hope those conflicts aren't too hard to resolve.

[Ethereal77]

I know. I've been following them closely. I'll rebase then and see what comes.

[Ethereal77]

I've rebased to latest master and also corrected some performance warnings that were left from a previous change. Please review.

[Eideren]

Thanks, tried it out on my end, it does work but there's an issue I want to discuss.

If the AssemblyProcessor is not built, opening the solution fails to load a couple of projects:

The project 'Stride.Graphics' ran into a problem during the last operation: The expression "[System.IO.File]::ReadAllText(J:\stride\deps\AssemblyProcessor\\netstandard2.0\Stride.Core.AssemblyProcessor.Packed.dll.hash)" cannot be evaluated. 
Could not find file 'J:\stride\deps\AssemblyProcessor\netstandard2.0\Stride.Core.AssemblyProcessor.Packed.dll.hash'.  J:\stride\sources\targets\Stride.Core.targets You may need to reload the solution after fixing the problem. 

GameStudio cannot be loaded because of that issue, and building the solution itself fails with a similar error. Going to the AssemblyProcessor solution and building it, then opening the main solution back does fix the issue of course. I do remember we talked about asking users to manually build the processor before the main solution, did you not find a more elegant solution in the end, or is that just an unrelated issue ?

[Ethereal77]

As I said above, I can try to integrate the AssemblyProcessor projects in the main solution. But was deciding if I should do it in this PR or make a new one. I agree the experience to have to build first the Stride.AssemblyProcessor.sln is rough, although it is what I've always done. But for new users it's not evident (and it's not clearly documented) that they should do that.

What should I do?

1. Continue in this PR with the "experimental" way I described in this comment?
2. Or should I add the instructions to the README,md to build the Stride.AssemblyProcessor.sln first, and leave the integration into the main solution for another PR?

[xen2]

Sorry if I wasn't clear before: I was suggesting to do a separate PR on top of this one (approach 1 as you mentioned in https://github.com/stride3d/stride/pull/1694#discussion_r1246670304?). Reason for separate PR is for easier review of that second part only. However, let's not merge this PR until the second PR is ready. I think lot of people would be confused if need to build another solution (esp. if it's temporary and will be fixed later).