Trouble with xamarin.ios/monotouch , mvvmcross and linking

Question

I have an irritating issue, if I use Link SDK Assemblies only in xamarin studio I get an exception, if I use dont link the exception is not happening. I have located the issue to be part of an third party dll i am using(api for a video streaming service). I believe the linker is stripping some of the methods used by this dll. Is it possible skip link of some libraries and is it possible to see which from this stacktrace.

    2013-05-08 14:40:54.688 AppsfabrikkenTouch[5662:907] mvx: Diagnostic:  18,23 Exception masked NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
      at System.Delegate.Combine (System.Delegate a, System.Delegate b) [0x00018] in /Developer/MonoTouch/Source/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Delegate.cs:473 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.ViewModels.MvxNotifyPropertyChanged.add_PropertyChanged (System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Bindings.Source.MvxBasePropertyInfoSourceBinding..ctor (System.Object source, System.String propertyName) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Bindings.Source.MvxPropertyInfoSourceBinding..ctor (System.Object source, System.String propertyName) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Bindings.Source.Construction.MvxSourceBindingFactory.CreateBinding (System.Object source, IEnumerable`1 childPropertyNames) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Bindings.Source.Construction.MvxSourceBindingFactory.CreateBinding (System.Object source, System.String combinedPropertyName) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Binders.MvxFullBinding.CreateSourceBinding (System.Object source) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Binders.MvxFullBinding..ctor (Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.MvxBindingRequest bindingRequest) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Binders.MvxFromTextBinder.BindSingle (Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.MvxBindingRequest bindingRequest) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Binders.MvxFromTextBinder+<>c__DisplayClass1.<Bind>b__0 (Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.MvxBindingDescription description) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at System.Linq.Enumerable+<CreateSelectIterator>c__Iterator1D`2[Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.MvxBindingDescription,Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.IMvxUpdateableBinding].MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.IMvxUpdateableBinding].AddEnumerable (IEnumerable`1 enumerable) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Interfaces.IMvxUpdateableBinding].AddRange (IEnumerable`1 collection) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Touch.ExtensionMethods.MvxBindingTouchExtensions.AddBindings (IMvxBindingTouchView view, IEnumerable`1 bindings) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Touch.ExtensionMethods.MvxBindingTouchExtensions.AddBindings (IMvxBindingTouchView view, System.Object source, System.Object target, System.String bindingText) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Touch.ExtensionMethods.MvxBindingTouchExtensions.AddBindings (IMvxBindingTouchView view, System.Object source, IDictionary`2 bindingMap) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.Touch.ExtensionMethods.MvxBindingTouchExtensions.AddBindings (IMvxBindingTouchView view, IDictionary`2 bindingMap) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at CmsApp.Touch.TabTextView.ViewDidLoad () [0x00074] in /Volumes/2end HDD/Dropbox/AppProjects/Appsfabrikken/CmsApp.Touch/Views/UmbracoViews/TabTextView.cs:45 
  at MonoTouch.UIKit.UINavigationController.PushViewController (MonoTouch.UIKit.UIViewController viewController, Boolean animated) [0x00019] in /Developer/MonoTouch/Source/monotouch/src/UIKit/UINavigationController.g.cs:178 
  at CmsApp.Touch.AppPhonePresenter.Show (IMvxTouchView view) [0x0007b] in /Volumes/2end HDD/Dropbox/AppProjects/Appsfabrikken/CmsApp.Touch/AppPhonePresenter.cs:62 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Touch.Views.Presenters.MvxTouchViewPresenter.Show (Cirrious.MvvmCross.Views.MvxShowViewModelRequest request) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at CmsApp.Touch.AppPhonePresenter.Show (Cirrious.MvvmCross.Views.MvxShowViewModelRequest request) [0x00000] in /Volumes/2end HDD/Dropbox/AppProjects/Appsfabrikken/CmsApp.Touch/AppPhonePresenter.cs:37 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Touch.Views.MvxTouchViewDispatcher+<>c__DisplayClass1.<RequestNavigate>b__0 () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at Cirrious.MvvmCross.Touch.Views.MvxTouchUIThreadDispatcher+<>c__DisplayClass1.<InvokeOrBeginInvoke>b__0 () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

Any help is appreciated.

UPDATE: As suggested by stuart (thanks stuart) I have added an LinkerPleaseInclude file with the following: But it still get an exception.

class LinkerIncludePlease
    {
        private void DelegateCombine(Delegate a, Delegate b)
        {
            var d = Delegate.Combine(a,b);
        }

        private void DelegateCombine(params Delegate[] delegates)
        {
            var d = Delegate.Combine(delegates);
        }

        private void DelegateCombine()
        {
            var d = Delegate.Combine();
        }

    }

My thought was that it had to be something related to the stacktrace

Exception masked NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
          at System.Delegate.Combine (System.Delegate a, System.Delegate b) [0x00018] 

But it seems not to do the trick - any pointers to find what is stripped out?

Answer 1

Is it possible skip link of some libraries

Yes. You can isolate the issue (and be 100% sure of its origin) to your 3rd party by using the --linkskip=ASSEMBLY option (in Additional mtouch arguments in your project's options). It can be used as a release workaround too (but you better find a more precise solution to get the full benefits from the linker).

E.g. --linkskip=mscorlib would skip mscorlib.dll (i.e. no file extension)

is it possible to see which from this stacktrace ?

Not quite. The issue is not with System.Delegate.Combine. Since it's named in the stack trace then you know it's not removed by the linker.

OTOH one of it's argument (a delegate) is likely removed. That can (most likely) happen if it was created using reflection (since the linker use static analysis). You can use the stack trace to see what (type) should have been used in the Combine call and work backward from there, e.g. to find how it was created.

Once you find it you'll want the linker to keep it. You can do so by adding extra, unneeded code (like @Stuart suggested). My own suggestions are to:

• use [Preserve] attributes when you have the source code;

• use an XML file (and --xml=file) when you do not have the source code;

Answer 2

Can't assist with the unnamed video api.

But to work around Mvvmcross linking issues:

• You'll need to work out what page/viewcontroller the linker error is happening on.

• Then you simply need to add a LinkerPleaseInclude.cs file to trick the linker into not removing whatever symbol it is stripping

Here's an example: https://github.com/MvvmCross/MvvmCross-Tutorials/blob/master/DailyDilbert/DailyDilbert.Touch/LinkerPleaseInclude.cs

Answer 3

I was not able to find what was missing, when the linker was doing its job.

However I found that during one binding, the video api was doing a synchrony restsharp call which made the binding wait till done and this seemed to cause the problem. If I changed the workflow and started a asynchrony restsharp call, which then starts the binding when done, it all worked as a charm.

Thank you vey much for your help.