Is there a way to avoid needing the exe.config with bindingRedirects?

[galensoft]

Hi! When I build my analyzer it has some generated bindingRedirects but I don't understand why. I would like to understand why to see if there's a way to avoid it so that I can distribute my analyzer as a single exe that is framework dependent. The exe.config looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration> <startup> <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.7.2" /> </startup> <runtime> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-15.1.0.0" newVersion="15.1.0.0" /> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Framework" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-15.1.0.0" newVersion="15.1.0.0" /> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-15.1.0.0" newVersion="15.1.0.0" /> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Core" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-15.1.0.0" newVersion="15.1.0.0" /> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> </runtime> </configuration>

This project started from the template Standalone Code Analysis Tool in Visual Studio

[YuliiaKovalova]

Hi @eriknielsen,

I have no insight on why it was added. Hopefully, @rainersigwald can tell us more.

[rainersigwald]

These binding redirects are required for MSBuild tasks to work compatibly. Specifically, if an old task was compiled against (say) Microsoft.Build.Framework version 14.0.0.0, it will fail at runtime if the binding redirects aren't present, because it would try to communicate with its host MSBuild engine using v14 types that are either unloadable (if the files can't be found) or mismatched with the v15.1 assemblies (if they exist somewhere).