Deploying MVC4 site to Azure results in ExtensionAttribute exception

Question

After watching the key note address from Scott Gu at AspConf I got excited about trying the Windows Azure Web sites with MVC4. I tried deploying an existing MVC application after re-configuring it to target .NET framework 4.0 instead of 4.5 and got the following error.

Could not load type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute' from assembly 'mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'.

Since I had already added several NuGet packages I thought it might have something to do with Ninject so I created a new MVC project targeting the .NET 4.0 framework with no NuGet packages and deployed to Windows Azure using the Visual Studio 2012 RC Publish option (right-clicking the Web project) and I still get this error.

Does anyone know what's going on or how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance.

Including full stack trace:

[TypeLoadException: Could not load type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute' from assembly 'mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'.]
System.ModuleHandle.ResolveType(RuntimeModule module, Int32 typeToken, IntPtr* typeInstArgs, Int32 typeInstCount, IntPtr* methodInstArgs, Int32 methodInstCount, ObjectHandleOnStack type) +0
System.ModuleHandle.ResolveTypeHandleInternal(RuntimeModule module, Int32 typeToken, RuntimeTypeHandle[] typeInstantiationContext, RuntimeTypeHandle[] methodInstantiationContext) +180
System.Reflection.RuntimeModule.ResolveType(Int32 metadataToken, Type[] genericTypeArguments, Type[] genericMethodArguments) +192
System.Reflection.CustomAttribute.FilterCustomAttributeRecord(CustomAttributeRecord caRecord, MetadataImport scope, Assembly& lastAptcaOkAssembly, RuntimeModule decoratedModule, MetadataToken decoratedToken, RuntimeType attributeFilterType, Boolean mustBeInheritable, Object[] attributes, IList derivedAttributes, RuntimeType& attributeType, IRuntimeMethodInfo& ctor, Boolean& ctorHasParameters, Boolean& isVarArg) +115
System.Reflection.CustomAttribute.GetCustomAttributes(RuntimeModule decoratedModule, Int32 decoratedMetadataToken, Int32 pcaCount, RuntimeType attributeFilterType, Boolean mustBeInheritable, IList derivedAttributes, Boolean isDecoratedTargetSecurityTransparent) +426 System.Reflection.CustomAttribute.GetCustomAttributes(RuntimeAssembly assembly, RuntimeType caType) +103
System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.GetCustomAttributes(Type attributeType, Boolean inherit) +64
WebActivator.AssemblyExtensions.GetActivationAttributes(Assembly assembly) +64 WebActivator.ActivationManager.RunActivationMethods() +143 WebActivator.ActivationManager.Run() +22

[InvalidOperationException: The pre-application start initialization method Run on type WebActivator.ActivationManager threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute' from assembly 'mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'..]
System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.InvokePreStartInitMethods(ICollection`1 methods) +423
System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods() +306
System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +677

[HttpException (0x80004005): The pre-application start initialization method Run on type WebActivator.ActivationManager threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute' from assembly 'mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'..]
System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +9090044 System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +97 System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +256

Answer 1

In the Publish Web Application wizard if I select Settings | Remove additional files at destination this problem went away.