Nuget package not resolved by AssemblyLoadContext.Default.LoadFromAssemblyName in NET6 with UseCommonOutputDirectory

Description

When UseCommonOutputDirectory is enabled NET 6.0 console applications are unable to resolve nuget dependencies.

Example output below:

NET 6:

6.0.1 System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Drawing .Common, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc7b13ffcd2ddd51'. The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'System.Drawing.Common, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyTo ken=cc7b13ffcd2ddd51' at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(ObjectHandleOnStack assembl yName, ObjectHandleOnStack requestingAssembly, StackCrawlMarkHandle stackMark, B oolean throwOnFileNotFound, ObjectHandleOnStack assemblyLoadContext, ObjectHandl eOnStack retAssembly) at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyName, RuntimeAssembly requestingAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFi leNotFound, AssemblyLoadContext assemblyLoadContext) at System.Runtime.Loader.AssemblyLoadContext.LoadFromAssemblyName(AssemblyNam e assemblyName) at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in C:\Users\dominic.farrington.HQ\Dev\Assem blyLoaderRepo\System.Drawing.Common.Assembly.Test\Program.cs:line 9

NET 5:

5.0.12 Loaded: System.Drawing.Common, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken= cc7b13ffcd2ddd51

Reproduction Steps

Repo with reproduction

Steps:

1. Create project targeting NET 6.0
2. Add <UseCommonOutputDirectory>true</UseCommonOutputDirectory> to csproj
3. Add <PackageReference Include="System.Drawing.Common" Version="6.0.0" /> to an item group
4. Attempt to load “System.Drawing.Common, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc7b13ffcd2ddd51” using AssemblyLoadContext.Default.LoadFromAssemblyName
5. Build & Run
6. Observe exception

Expected behavior

Nuget packages should be successfully resolved at runtime when UseCommonOutput is enabled and the executable is launched from the bin folder

Actual behavior

Nuget packages are not successfully resolved.

Regression?

Worked in NET 5.0

Known Workarounds

No response

Configuration

Version: NET 6.0.100 OS: Windows 10 Enterprise 21H2 19044.1415 Architecture: Any CPU

Other information

No response

[davidjnet]

Targetting .NET 5, the SDK generates a .runtimeconfig.dev.json in the output that includes %USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages as an additional probing path.

When building with <UseCommonOutputDirectory>true</UseCommonOutputDirectory>, although System.Drawing.Common.dll is not copied to the output, the .runtimeconfig.dev.json allows it to be found in the nuget cache.

.NET 6 SDK stopped generating *.runtimeconfig.dev.json because of https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/pull/17014/files which seems to have caused this regression.

@OkkioXavier if you add <GenerateRuntimeConfigDevFile>true</GenerateRuntimeConfigDevFile> along with <UseCommonOutputDirectory>true</UseCommonOutputDirectory> do you get the same behaviour as .NET 5?

[adwitkow]

I’d like to report that the issue is still occurring - although following the steps provided by @davidjnet definitely help. And due to the exception being very generic (and seemingly out of nowhere, because the UseCommonOutputDirectory setting alone worked for me for a while), it was astoundingly difficult to stumble upon this fix.