I guess I don't understand why I am continually re-adding references to my project. I have an asp.net solution with a main web project and a C# project for utility functions. I have the build order set properly for the solution, however about every three or four times I start the app to debug code, .net starts looking for the utility.dll in a completely wrong place(s). I get messages like cannot fine dll reference and it appears to be looking everywhere except the place I added it from. Since the utility project is in a subfolder off of the solution directory it takes only a few builds before .net looses it.

So, is it goodbye DLL hell, welcome to assembly hell?

In some cases I have to restart .net and in some cases I have to restart the box???

Several things that I don't understand.

1) If I have created and built a strongly named assembly and it is added to the gac, why can't I add a refernce to it by selecting it in the gac when I add a reference to an asp.net application? It appears as if you have to add a reference to it by selecting the DLL directly. ie mysolution\utilityproject\bin\debug\my.dll (or release)

The problem with the above issue is .net starts looking under 5 or 6 other folders for the DLL but not in the folder it was added from!!! but only after 3 or 4 builds...

2) Given the above scenario, if I add a reference to the DLL in the debug directory, why should I have to remove/add the reference again when building a release version?

Either way .net always eventually forgets where the assembly lives.

I also get a wierd error where asp.net is looking to add an assembly named */ ?