Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

elease configuration. This means that you can automatically switch from debug to
release builds across projects without having to reset references.
• They enable Visual Studio to detect and prevent circular dependencies.
You can use a project reference if the assembly is already within your solution’s project
set. If the assembly is outside of your solution’s project set and you still want to use a
project reference, you can branch the dependency from the originating project into your
project. When you want to pick up a new version of the dependency, perform a merge
from the originating project into your branch.
Additional Resources
• For more information about project and file references, see “Project References” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ez524kew(VS.80).aspx
• For more information about adding references, see “How to: Add or Remove
References in Visual Studio” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/wkze6zky(VS.80).aspx
Use File References Only Where Necessary
If you cannot use a project reference because you need to reference an assembly outside
of your current solution’s project set, and you do not want to create a branch from the
originating project into your project, you must set a file reference.
Additional Resources
• For more information about project and file references, see “Project References” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ez524kew(VS.80).aspx
Use copy local = true for Project and File References
Every reference has an associated copy local attribute. Visual Studio determines the
initial setting of this attribute (true or false) when the reference is initially added. It is set
to false if the referenced assembly is found to be in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC);
otherwise, it is set to true.
You should not change this default setting.
With copy local set to true, the Visual Studio build system copies any referenced
assembly (and any dependent downstream assemblies) to the client project’s output
folder when the reference is set. For example, if your client project references an
assembly named Lib1, and Lib1 depends on Lib2 and Lib3, then Lib1, Lib2, and Lib3 are
copied to your project’s local output folder automatically by Visual Studio at build time.
Additional Resources
• For more information about project and file references, see “Project References” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ez524kew(VS.80).aspx