This page describes how to build Ice for .NET from source and package the resulting binaries. As an alternative, you can download and install the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package.
- Building on Windows
- Building on Linux or macOS
- Running the Tests
- NuGet Package
- Building Ice for Xamarin Test Suite
A source build of Ice for .NET on Windows produces two sets of assemblies:
- assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5
- assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0
In order to build Ice for .NET from source, you need all of the following:
- a supported version of Visual Studio
- the .NET Core 2.1 SDK, if you use Visual Studio 2017
- the .NET Core 3.1 SDK, if you use Visual Studio 2019
Note: Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3.0 or higher is required for .NET Core builds.
Open a Visual Studio command prompt and change to the csharp subdirectory:
cd csharp
To build all Ice assemblies and the associated test suite, run:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj
Upon completion, the Ice assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Standard
2.0 are placed in the lib\net45 and lib\netstandard2.0 folders respectively.
Note: the assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0 are created only when you build with Visual Studio 2017 or greater.
You can skip the build of the test suite with the BuildDist target:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:BuildDist
The Net45Build, Net45BuildDist, NetStandardBuild and
NetStandardBuildDist targets allow you to build assemblies only for the .NET
Framework 4.5 or .NET Standard 2.0, with or without the test suite.
The iceboxnet and test applications target netcoreapp3.1 when using Visual
Studio 2019 and netcoreapp2.1 when using Visual Studio 2017. You can change
the target framework by setting the AppTargetFramework property to a different
Target Framework Moniker value, for example:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /p:"AppTargetFramework=net462"
This builds the test programs for net462. The target frameworks you specify
must implement .NET Standard 2.0.
You can add Strong Naming signatures to the Ice assemblies by setting the following environment variables before building these assemblies:
PUBLIC_KEYFILEIdentity public key used to delay sign the assemblyKEYFILEIdentity full key pair used to sign the assembly
If only PUBLIC_KEYFILE is set, the assemblies are delay-signed during the
build and you must re-sign the assemblies later with the full identity key pair.
If only KEYFILE is set, the assemblies are fully signed during the build using
KEYFILE.
If both PUBLIC_KEYFILE and KEYFILE are set, assemblies are delay-signed
during the build using PUBLIC_KEYFILE and re-signed after the build using
KEYFILE. This can be used for generating Enhanced Strong Naming
signatures.
Strong Name Signatures can be generated only from Windows builds.
You can sign the Ice binaries with Authenticode by setting the following environment variables before building these assemblies:
SIGN_CERTIFICATEto your Authenticode certificateSIGN_PASSWORDto the certificate password
Authenticode can be generated only from Windows builds.
You can build only the test suite with this command:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /p:ICE_BIN_DIST=all
This build retrieves and installs the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package if
necessary.
You need the .NET Core 2.1 SDK or .NET Core 3.1 SDK to build Ice for .NET from source.
Open a command prompt and change to the csharp directory:
cd csharp
Then run:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj
Upon completion, the Ice assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0 are placed in the
lib/netstandard2.0 directory.
You can skip the build of the test suite with the BuildDist target:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:BuildDist
The iceboxnet and test applications target netcoreapp3.1 when using .NET Core
3.1 SDK and netcoreapp2.1 when using .NET Core 2.1 SDK. You can change the
target framework by setting the AppTargetFramework property to a different
Target Framework Moniker value, for example:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /p:"AppTargetFramework=netcoreapp2.2"
Python is required to run the test suite. Additionally, the Glacier2 tests
require the Python module passlib, which you can install with the command:
pip install passlib
To run the tests, open a command window and change to the top-level directory. At the command prompt, execute:
python allTests.py
If everything worked out, you should see lots of ok messages. In case of a
failure, the tests abort with failed.
On Windows, allTests.py executes by default the tests for .NET Framework 4.5.
In order to execute the tests with .NET Core framework add the --dotnetcore
option. For example:
python allTests.py --dotnetcore
If you build the test against a different target framework you must use
--framework option with the corresponding target framework.
For example to run test build against .NET Framework 4.6.2:
python allTests.py --framework=net462
And to run test build against .NET Core 3.1:
python allTests.py --dotnetcore --framework=netcoreapp3.1
To create a NuGet package, open a Visual Studio command prompt and run the following command:
msbuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:NuGetPack
This creates the zeroc.ice.net Nuget package in the msbuild\zeroc.ice.net
directory.
Note: The NuGet package always includes assemblies for the .NET Framework 4.5.
If you build with Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019, the NuGet package also includes assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0.
If you build with Visual Studio 2019 the NuGet package include iceboxnet executables targeting .NET Framework 4.5, .NET Core 3.1 and .NET Core 2.1.
If you build with Visual Studio 2017 the NuGet package include iceboxnet executables targeting .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Core 2.1.
To create a NuGet package, open a command prompt and run the following command:
dotnet msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:NuGetPack
This creates the zeroc.ice.net Nuget package in the msbuild/zeroc.ice.net
directory.
The msbuild\ice.xamarin.test.sln Visual Studio solution allows building
the Ice test suite as a Xamarin application that can be deployed on iOS, Android
or UWP platforms.
The Xamarin test suite uses the Ice assemblies for .NET Standard 2.0. either
from the source distribution or using the zeroc.ice.net NuGet package. If
using the assembles from the source distribution, they must be built before this
application.
- Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019 with following workloads:
- Universal Windows Platform development
- Mobile development with .NET
- .NET Core cross-platform development
Open a Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019 command prompt:
MSBuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:AndroidXamarinBuild
Open a Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2017 command prompt:
MSBuild msbuild\ice.proj /t:UWPXamarinBuild
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\tools\bin;%PATH%
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\platform-tools;%PATH%
set PATH=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\emulator;%PATH%
python allTests.py --android --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
python allTests.py --uwp --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
- Visual Studio for Mac
msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:AndroidXamarinBuild
msbuild msbuild/ice.proj /t:iOSXamarinBuild
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/bin:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator:$PATH
python allTests.py --android --controller-app --config Release --platform x64
python allTests.py --controller-app --config Release --platform iphonesimulator