This page describes how to build Ice for .NET from source and package the resulting binaries. As an alternative, you can download and install the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package.
- Building on Windows
- Building on Linux or macOS
- Running the Tests
- NuGet Package
- Building Ice for Xamarin Test Suite
A source build of Ice for .NET on Windows produces two sets of assemblies:
- assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5
- assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0
In order to build Ice for .NET from source, you need all of the following:
- a supported version of Visual Studio
- the .NET Core 2.0 SDK, if you use Visual Studio 2017
Note: Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3.0 or higher is required for .NET Core builds.
Open a Visual Studio command prompt and change to the csharp subdirectory:
cd csharp
To build all Ice assemblies and the associated test suite, run:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj
Upon completion, the Ice assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Standard 2.0
are placed in the lib\net45 and lib\netstandard2.0 folders respectively.
Note: the assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0 are created only when you build with Visual Studio 2017.
You can skip the build of the test suite with the BuildDist target:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:BuildDist
The BuildNet45, BuildNet45Dist, BuildNetStandard and BuildNetStandardDist targets
allow you to build assemblies only for the .NET Framework 4.5 or .NET Standard 2.0,
with or without the test suite.
The target framework for the .NET Standard tests is netcoreapp2.0 by default. You can
target other frameworks by setting the IceTestsTargetFrameworks property to one or more
Target Framework Monikers (TFMs), for example:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /p:"IceTestsTargetFrameworks=net461;netcoreapp2.0"
This builds the test programs for net461 and netcoreapp2.0 (in separate folders).
The target frameworks you specify must implement .NET Standard 2.0.
You can add Strong Naming signatures to the Ice assemblies for .NET Framework 4.5 by setting the following environment variables before building these assemblies:
- PUBLIC_KEYFILE Identity public key used to delay sign the assembly
- KEYFILE Identity full key pair used to sign the assembly
If only PUBLIC_KEYFILE is set, the assemblies are delay-signed during the build and you must re-sign the assemblies later with the full identity key pair.
If only KEYFILE is set, the assemblies are fully signed during the build using KEYFILE.
If both PUBLIC_KEYFILE and KEYFILE are set, assemblies are delay-signed during the build using PUBLIC_KEYFILE and re-signed after the build using KEYFILE. This can be used for generating Enhanced Strong Naming signatures.
You can sign the Ice binaries with Authenticode by setting the following environment variables before building these assemblies:
- SIGN_CERTIFICATE to your Authenticode certificate
- SIGN_PASSWORD to the certificate password
Temporary limitation: assembly signing applies only to .NET Framework 4.5 assemblies at present.
You can build only the test suite with this command:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /p:ICE_BIN_DIST=all
This build retrieves and installs the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package if necessary.
You need the .NET Core 2.0 SDK to build Ice for .NET from source.
Open a command prompt and change to the csharp subdirectory:
cd csharp
Then run:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj
Upon completion, the Ice assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0 are placed in the
lib/netstandard2.0 directory.
You can skip the build of the test suite with the BuildDist target:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:BuildDist
Python is required to run the test suite. Additionally, the Glacier2 tests
require the Python module passlib, which you can install with the command:
pip install passlib
To run the tests, open a command window and change to the top-level directory. At the command prompt, execute:
python allTests.py
If everything worked out, you should see lots of ok messages. In case of a
failure, the tests abort with failed.
On Windows, allTests.py executes by default the tests for .NET Framework 4.5.
In order to execute the tests with .NET Core framework add the --dotnetcore option.
For example:
python allTests.py --dotnetcore
To create a NuGet package, open a Visual Studio command prompt and run the following command:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:NuGetPack
This creates zeroc.ice.net\zeroc.ice.net.nupkg.
Note: The new NuGet package always includes assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5. If you build with Visual Studio 2017, the NuGet package also includes assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0.
Temporary limitation: you currently cannot create NuGet packages on Linux and macOS.
The msbuild\ice.xamarin.test.sln Visual Studio solution allows building
the Ice test suite as a Xamarin application that can be deployed on iOS, Android
or UWP platforms.
The Xamarin test suite uses the Ice assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0. either from the source distribution or using the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package. If using the assembles from the source distribution, they must be built before this application.
- Visual Studio 2017 with following workloads:
- Universal Windows Platform development
- Mobile development with .NET
- .NET Core cross-platform development
Open a Visual Studio 2017 command prompt:
MSBuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:AndroidXamarinBuild
Open a Visual Studio 2017 command prompt:
MSBuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:UWPXamarinBuild
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\tools\bin;%PATH%
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\platform-tools;%PATH%
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\emulator;%PATH%
python allTests.py --android --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
python allTests.py --uwp --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
- Visual Studio for Mac
msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:AndroidXamarinBuild
msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:iOSXamarinBuild
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/bin:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator:$PATH
python allTests.py --android --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
python allTests.py --controller-app --config Release --platform iphonesimulator