How to publish the project DLLs to a folder automatically when building the project in Visual Studio

I am having multiple modules in my application and I want to copy the module's assembly to the Main startup project's bin folder dynamically without adding as a reference.

I am able to manually publish the project's DLLs using the Publish option in the Visual Studio. But I want to be able to copy the module's assembly automatically to the main startup project bin folder when we builds the module project.

Is there any option other than using the PostBuild event?

It would be much helpful if you could you share your ideas.

Not sure if there is more elegant way for dotnet, but you always can create something as Batch *.bat file on Windows (or Bash script in Linux) and write any commands you want, like so:

dotnet build <your_main_project_name> 
dotnet publish <your_second_project_name> 
copy <path_to_second_bin> <path_to_target_bin> 

Of cource, there are also special PowerShell script files and so on, but the general idea is to use scripts. You may look for guidelines or check some Batch commands and Bash commands. It may be old-school, but always-working way

You could write a console program to be able to copy the assembly to the main startup project bin folder, but unfortunately this still uses PostBuild.

The console program is as follows:

 public class Program
 {
     public static void Main(string[] args)
     {
         //string para1 = @"D:\word_code\Server\myProj\\bin,casereport,D:\Web_zy\Bin";// followed by source, dll file keywords, target directory
         string para1 =args[0];
         string[] ar = para1.Split(',', '|', ',');//source project bin path, keyword of mobile dll file, target server path
         Console.WriteLine("Source: " + ar[0]);
         Console.WriteLine("Target: " + ar[2]);
         var moveFile = new List<string>();
         if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(ar[0]) && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(ar[1]))
         {
             var list=GetFiles(ar[0],"", true);
             moveFile = (from p in list
                     where Path.GetFileName(p).ToLower().Contains(ar[1].ToLower())
                     select p).ToList();
         }
         if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(ar[2]))
         {
             foreach (var item in moveFile)
             {
                 CopyFile(item, $@"{ar[2]}\{Path.GetFileName(item)}");
             }
         }
         Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
         Console.Write("[Success] Press any key to exit...");
         Console. ReadKey(true);
     }


     #region Find all files in a directory that contains subdirectories
     /// <summary>
     /// Get all files in the directory or the specified file type file address
     /// </summary>
     public static List<string> fileList = new List<string>();
     public static string[] GetFiles(string fullPath, string extName, bool isFullName = false)
     {
         try
         {
             fileList. Clear();
             DirectoryInfo dirs = new DirectoryInfo(fullPath); //Get the directory object of the path where the program is located
             DirectoryInfo[] dir = dirs.GetDirectories();//Get the folder object under the directory
             FileInfo[] file = dirs.GetFiles();//Get the file object under the directory
             int dircount = dir.Count();//Get the number of folder objects
             int filecount = file.Count();//Get the number of file objects

             // loop through folders
             for (int i = 0; i < dircount; i++)
             {
                 string pathNode = fullPath + "\\" + dir[i].Name;
                 GetMultiFile(pathNode, isFullName);
             }

             // loop through files
             for (int j = 0; j < filecount; j++)
             {
                 if (isFullName)
                 {
                     fileList.Add(file[j].FullName);
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     fileList.Add(file[j].Name);
                 }
             }

             return fileList. ToArray();
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
             Console.WriteLine (ex.Message + "\r\nThe location of the error is: Form1.PaintTreeView()");
         }

         return null;
     }

     private static bool GetMultiFile(string path, bool isFullName = false)
     {
         if (Directory. Exists(path) == false)
         { return false; }

         DirectoryInfo dirs = new DirectoryInfo(path); //Get the directory object of the path where the program is located
         DirectoryInfo[] dir = dirs.GetDirectories();//Get the folder object under the directory
         FileInfo[] file = dirs.GetFiles();//Get the file object under the directory
         int dircount = dir.Count();//Get the number of folder objects
         int filecount = file.Count();//Get the number of file objects
         int sumcount = dircount + filecount;

         if (sumcount == 0)
         { return false; }

         // loop through folders
         for (int j = 0; j < dircount; j++)
         {
             string pathNodeB = path + "\\" + dir[j].Name;
             GetMultiFile(pathNodeB, isFullName);
         }

         // loop through files
         for (int j = 0; j < filecount; j++)
         {
             if (isFullName)
             {
                 fileList.Add(file[j].FullName);
             }
             else
             {
                 fileList.Add(file[j].Name);
             }
         }
         return true;
     }

     /// <summary>
     /// Copy the file multiple times for a large file true: the copy is successful false: the copy fails
     /// </summary>
     /// <param name="soucrePath">Original file path</param>
     /// <param name="targetPath">Copy target file path</param>
     /// <returns></returns>
     public static bool CopyFile(string sourcePath, string targetPath)
     {
         try
         {
             // read the copied file stream
             using (FileStream fsRead = new FileStream(soucrePath, FileMode. Open, FileAccess. Read))
             {
                 //write to file copy stream
                 using (FileStream fsWrite = new FileStream(targetPath, FileMode. OpenOrCreate, FileAccess. Write))
                 {
                     byte[] buffer = new byte[1024 * 1024 * 2]; // read 2M each time
                     while (true)//The file is large, read 2M each time
                     {
                         int n = fsRead.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Count());//Data read each time n: is the actual data size read each time
                         //If n=0, it means that the read data is empty and has been read to the end, jump out of the loop
                         if (n == 0)
                         {
                             break;
                         }
                         //write each time the actual data size read
                         fsWrite.Write(buffer, 0, n);
                     }
                 }
             }
             return true;
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
             return false;
         }
     }
     #endregion
 }