Why doesn't VS2010 copy all DLLs in /bin/debug to the unit test directory?

Question

I have a unit test which depends on some code that uses MEF. When I run the test, MEF (I believe) MEF tries to load all dependent DLLs for all the DLLs in the unit test's executing directory.

The problem is that VS2010 for some reason isn't copying all the DLLs from the /bin/debug directory to the unit test's executing directory, and I don't know why. Here's an example:

Unit test is complaining is can't load assembly A, so I include project B which assembly A has as a dependency. In the /bin/debug folder for the unit test project, all the DLLs are in there, but when I look at the unit test's executing directory, assembly A isn't there.

I could start adding DLLs as refs to the unit test project one by one, but I feel like I should have to.

Thoughts?

thanks, Mark

Answer 1

Maybe the DeploymentItem attribute can help, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182475.aspx:

For the parameter of the DeploymentItem attribute, specify the folder or file that you want to deploy for this test. You can use either an absolute path or a relative path. Relative paths are relative to the RelativePathRoot setting found in the .testrunconfig file.

[TestMethod]
[DeploymentItem("MyTestProject\\testdatasource.mdb")]
public void TestMethod1()
{

// TODO: Add test logic here

}