NUnit assembly not found

Question

I've used NUnit before, but not in a while, and never on this machine. I unzipped version 2.4.8 under Program Files, and I keep getting this error when trying to load my tests.

Could not load file or assembly 'nunit.framework, Version=2.4.8.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=96d09a1eb7f44a77' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified**

In order to simplify the problem, I've compiled the most basic possible test file.

using NUnit.Framework;

namespace test
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class Tester
    {
        [Test]
        public void ATest()
        {
            Assert.IsTrue(false, "At least the test ran!");
        }
    }
}

I've added "C:\Program Files\NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0\bin" to my PATH (and rebooted). Note that if I copy the test assembly into that folder, then

C:\Program Files\NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0\bin>nunit-console test.dll

works, but

C:\Program Files\NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0\bin>nunit-console c:\dev\nunit_test\test.dll

and

C:\dev\nunit_test>nunit_console test.dll

fail with the above error.

Presumably I could get around this by copying the NUnit.Framework DLL file into my project's bin folder, but I don't remember having to do this in the past. Moreover, I get the same error in the GUI. Shouldn't the GUI know where the framework is located (that is, in the same folder)?

I'm not using Visual Studio. I use the following line to compile the test project.

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe /r:"C:\Program Files\NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0\bin\nunit.framework.dll" /t:library /out:test.dll test.cs

I tried both the .msi and the .zip file with the same result.

Answer 1

Make sure you have added a reference to nunit.framework. If you have, then make sure the properties of that reference have the copy local property set to true.

Answer 2

I had the same problem, and I had installed using NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0.msi. Expanding on the "add to the GAC" comment, here's what I did:

• Open your "Visual Studio command prompt (generally: make sure gacutil is in your path) and: cd "C:\Program Files\NUnit 2.4.8\bin"

• Unregister your NUnit entries from the GAC. You can do this by finding the NUnit entries registered in the GAC:

  gacutil /l | find /i "nunit" > temp.bat && notepad temp.bat
  

• Prepend the nunit.core and nunit.framework lines with "gacutil /uf", i.e.:

  gacutil /uf nunit.core,Version=2.4.2.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=96d09a1eb7f44a77
  
  gacutil /uf  nunit.framework,Version=2.4.2.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=96d09a1eb7f44a77
  

• Run your .bat file to remove them: temp.bat

• Register the NUnit DLL files you need:

  gacutil /i nunit.core.dll
  
  gacutil /i nunit.framework.dll
  

Answer 3

If you install using NUnit-2.4.8-net-2.0.msi, the NUnit assemblies are added to the GAC.

You can also reinstall manually by running gacutil from the Visual Studio 2005 command prompt.