FSharp.Compiler.Service dependency on MSBuild

[nightroman]

As far as I know, project related tools moved to FSharp.Compiler.Service.ProjectCracker. At the same time, FSharp.Compiler.Service still depends on MSBuild and cannot be loaded and used without MSBuild installed.

ILSpy shows the following references:

Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a
Microsoft.Build.Tasks.v12.0, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a
Microsoft.Build.Utilities.v12.0, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

I wonder if this dependency is by design or not. In the latter case, it would be nice if this dependency is removed. FSharp.Compiler.Service is useful on its own without MSBuild related stuff.

[tpetricek]

I was just going to report this too - Fable, which uses FCS 6.0.2 still does not work on machine with just VS 2015 (you need to install MSBUILD 12 to be able to run it).

[tpetricek]

There was earlier discussion about this, but apparently, this is still an issue: #337

[7sharp9]

Isn't msbuild used for reference resolution too, except in the case of mono which uses simple resolution.

[nosami]

Yeah it's used for reference resolution. Would really like to drop the
MSBuild deps though if possible. Ideally, the reference resolution should
be done before any FCS interactions.

On 11 Sep 2016 7:22 p.m., "Dave Thomas" notifications@github.com wrote:

Isn't msbuild used for reference resolution too, except in the case of
mono which uses simple resolution.

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[tpetricek]

It would be great to solve this - as more and more projects use FSC and not many people use VS 2013, this is a growing issue. If we don't solve this before Progressive F# tutorials in London, I bet many people coming to Suave and Fable tutorials will be affected by this (with Suave, FSC can provide nice live-reloading experience and Fable relies on this directly).

What is a minimal viable solution to make sure we do not give really crappy experience? Should I recover my PR to bundle the DLLs as part of the package?

[7sharp9]

I wonder why its so hard to rip out, desperately need a #NO_MSBUILD flag to purge it so reference behavior is mono stylee.

[tpetricek]

(more discussion about the earlier PR is here #338 - yes, it's not a nice solution, but I think we need some solution)

[dsyme]

Let's just factor the dependency into another DLL (so you can opt in to Visual F#-Tools compatible MSBuild support).

[dsyme]

@nightroman @tpetricek @7sharp9 @nosami See #649, please take a look over this.

[nightroman]

@dsyme, it looks very promising, thank you very much! This approach, with some minor adjustments on my side, should work for FSharpFar. This module supports two configuration types, .fsproj and .fs.ini. The latter is effectively just arguments of fsc and fsi in a friendly format with some helpers like environment variables expansion. As far as understand, .fs.ini scenario will be able to work without MSBuild. Developers of F# scripts for Far Manager may still use .fsproj with MSBuild / Visual Studio / VS Code. But F# scripts released for Far Manager users come with .fs.ini, so that users do not have to install MSBuild. This is exactly what I needed.

[tpetricek]

@dsyme Thank you for looking into this!! Solving this will be fantastic. I should be able to look once I'm done with the training I'm doing over the next two days!

[nightroman]

@tpetricek, it would be interesting to know if it works for you. So I far I cannot make it working and I am not sure if it is my fault or not. Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll is loaded even if I opt out, if it is present, and it fails if it is not.

I am trying the latest NuGet package 8.0.0 with FSharpChecker(msbuildEnabled=false) and FsiInteractiveSession(msbuildEnabled=false)

[dsyme]

@nightroman Could you submit repro steps? In particular, which tool is hosting FSHarp.Compiler.Service?

[nightroman]

@dsyme The tool is FSharpFar and the FCS scenarios that it uses are briefly
described four comments above.

Let me put the latest changes of FSharpFar in order and release its version
that uses FCS 8.0.0 and opts out of MSBuild in cases of .fs.ini configuration.
Then I will describe how to get Far Manager, FarNet, and FSharpFar and repro steps.

Here is the summary of the used scenario. When FSharpFar is told to open an
interactive session or perform F# checks with .fs.ini configuration then it uses
FsiInteractiveSession(msbuildEnabled=false) or FSharpChecker(msbuildEnabled=false).
It takes arguments for fsc from the .fs.ini file and does not call the project cracker.
Nevertheless, Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll is loaded in this scenario.