C#: Elegant way of copying native dependencies next to my exe

Question

Currently I am using a post-build event command line similar to this one:

xcopy /Y /R d:\svn\some\directory\somedll.dll  $(TargetDir)

The problem is this: when others check the code out to another directory they will have to fix the path in this command. Is there a less hackish way of doing this?

Answer 1

Assuming d:\svn\some\directory is at a fixed location relative to your .sln file, you can use a relative path something like this:

xcopy /Y /R $(SolutionDir)..\directory\somedll.dll $(TargetDir)

(Note that the value of $(SolutionDir) includes a trailing backslash.)

Answer 2

If d:\svn\some\directory is within your solution folder then you can add somedll.dll to your Visual Studio solution and set "Copy to Output Directory" to "Copy always" in the file properties.