I have almost cracked this NAnt thing, and all I can say is Visual Studio has certainly "hidden" a lot of things behind the covers when it comes to compiling.
I have my VB.NET app compiling successfully now via NAnt, however it does not run, it comes up with the error:
Could not find any resources appropriate for the specified culture or the neutral culture.
Make sure "APP3.Resource.resources" was correctly embedded or linked into assembly "APP3" at compile time, or that all the satellite assemblies required are loadable and fully signed.
When I compile and run in Visual Studio it all works fine.
The build file includes all the .resx files for all projects being compiled, and I do not get any errors during the NAnt build process.
Any ideas would be appreciated :-)
Oh, and I notice that my EXE is 6kb smaller, so something is obviously missing, and the NAnt process does not seem to create a manifest file either, or all the XML files, I assume that is normal?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="APP3" default="build" basedir="..\">
<description>APP3 build</description>
<property name="nant.settings.currentframework" value="net-3.5" />
<property name="projectversion" value="3.8.0" />
<property name="project.config" value="debug" />
<target name="init">
<call target="${project.config}" />
</target>
<target name="debug">
<property name="project.config" value="debug" />
<property name="build.debug" value="true" />
<property name="basedir.suffix" value="-debug" />
</target>
<target name="release">
<property name="project.config" value="release" />
<property name="build.debug" value="false" />
<property name="basedir.suffix" value="-release" />
</target>
<target name="clean">
<delete file="${project::get-base-directory()}${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}\APP3_DataClasses.dll" failonerror="false" />
<delete file="${project::get-base-directory()}${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}\classUtilities.dll" failonerror="false" />
<delete file="${project::get-base-directory()}${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}\APP3.exe" failonerror="false" />
</target>
<target name="build-classutilities" depends="init, clean" description="compiles the APP3 utilities class">
<property name="build.dir" value="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}"/>
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
<vbc target="library" output="${build.dir}/classUtilities.dll" debug="${build.debug}" rootnamespace="classUtilities">
<imports>
<import namespace="Microsoft.VisualBasic" />
<import namespace="System" />
<import namespace="System.Collections" />
<import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" />
<import namespace="System.Data" />
<import namespace="System.Diagnostics" />
<import namespace="System.Linq" />
<import namespace="System.Xml.Linq" />
</imports>
<sources>
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/classUtilities/Utilities.vb" />
</sources>
<resources>
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/classUtilities/*.resx" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/classUtilities/My Project/*.resx" />
</resources>
<references>
<include name="System.dll" />
<include name="System.Data.dll" />
<include name="System.Core.dll" />
<include name="System.Xml.dll" />
<include name="System.Xml.Linq.dll" />
</references>
</vbc>
</target>
<target name="build-dataclasses" depends="build-classutilities" description="compiles the APP3 data classes">
<property name="build.dir" value="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}"/>
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
<vbc target="library" output="${build.dir}/APP3_DataClasses.dll" debug="${build.debug}" rootnamespace="APP3_DataClasses">
<imports>
<import namespace="Microsoft.VisualBasic" />
<import namespace="System" />
<import namespace="System.Collections" />
<import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" />
<import namespace="System.Configuration" />
<import namespace="System.Data" />
<import namespace="System.Diagnostics" />
<import namespace="System.Xml" />
<import namespace="System.Xml.Linq" />
<import namespace="Iesi.Collections" />
</imports>
<sources>
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3_DataClasses/**/*.vb" />
</sources>
<resources prefix="APP3_DataClasses">
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3_DataClasses/*.resx" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3_DataClasses/My Project/*.resx" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3_DataClasses/*.hbm.xml" />
</resources>
<references>
<include name="System.dll" />
<include name="System.Core.dll" />
<include name="System.Xml.dll" />
<include name="System.Xml.Linq.dll" />
<include name="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\Iesi.Collections.dll" />
</references>
</vbc>
</target>
<target name="build" description="compiles the source code" depends="build-dataclasses">
<property name="build.dir" value="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}_${projectversion}${basedir.suffix}"/>
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
<copy file="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\NHibernate.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/NHibernate.dll" />
<copy file="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\Iesi.Collections.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/Iesi.Collections.dll" />
<copy file="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\log4net.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/log4net.dll" />
<copy file="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3/hibernate.cfg.xml" tofile="${build.dir}/hibernate.cfg.xml" />
<copy file="C:\Dev\LumenWorks.Framework\LumenWorks.Framework.3.8.0\LumenWorks.Framework.IO.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/LumenWorks.Framework.IO.dll" />
<copy file="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office11\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.dll" />
<copy file="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office11\office.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/office.dll" />
<copy file="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office11\Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.dll" tofile="${build.dir}/Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.dll" />
<copy file="${project::get-base-directory()}/APP3/app.config" tofile="${build.dir}/APP3.exe.config" />
<copy todir="${build.dir}">
<fileset basedir="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_For_LazyLoading\Castle\">
<include name="*.dll" />
</fileset>
</copy>
<vbc target="winexe" output="${build.dir}/APP3.exe" debug="${build.debug}" rootnamespace="APP3">
<imports>
<import namespace="Microsoft.VisualBasic" />
<import namespace="System" />
<import namespace="System.Collections" />
<import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" />
<import namespace="System.Configuration" />
<import namespace="System.Data" />
<import namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" />
<import namespace="System.Diagnostics" />
<import namespace="System.Drawing" />
<import namespace="System.Windows.Forms" />
<import namespace="System.IO" />
<import namespace="System.Xml" />
</imports>
<sources>
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/*.vb" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/classes/*.vb" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/historical/*.vb" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/Modules/*.vb" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/My Project/*.vb" />
</sources>
<resources prefix="APP3" dynamicprefix="true">
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/*.resx" />
<include name="${project::get-base-directory()}/${project::get-name()}/My Project/*.resx" />
</resources>
<references>
<include name="Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll" />
<include name="System.dll" />
<include name="System.Data.dll" />
<include name="System.Windows.Forms.dll" />
<include name="System.configuration.dll" />
<include name="System.Drawing.dll" />
<include name="${build.dir}/APP3_DataClasses.dll" />
<include name="${build.dir}/classUtilities.dll" />
<include name="System.Xml.dll" />
<include name="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\Iesi.Collections.dll" />
<include name="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\NHibernate.dll" />
<include name="C:\Dev\NHibernate-2.1.2\Required_Bins\log4net.dll" />
<include name="C:\Dev\LumenWorks.Framework\LumenWorks.Framework.3.8.0\LumenWorks.Framework.IO.dll" />
<include name="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office11\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.dll" />
</references>
</vbc>
</target>
I faced the same problem, and then tested each of the assemblies with the program .NET Reflector I've discovered that when a program is compiled from the VS, a resource file Properties\Resources.resx in the assembly has a name appName.Properties.Resources.resources. When you use nAnt
<resources>
<include name="${proj_dir}/Properties/Resources.resx"/>
</ resources>
in the assembly resource file has name Resources.resources .
I solved this problem as follows.
<target name="example">
<copy file="${proj_dir}/Properties/Resources.resx" tofile="${proj_dir}/Properties/appName.Properties.Resources.resx"/>
<csc target="winexe" output="${bin_dir}/appName.exe">
<sources>
<include name="${proj_dir}/*.cs"/>
<include name="${proj_dir}/Properties/*.cs"/>
</sources>
<resources>
<include name="${proj_dir}/Properties/appName.Properties.Resources.resx"/>
</resources>
</csc>
<delete file="${proj_dir}/Properties/appName.Properties.Resources.resx"/>
</target>