Project reference issue (No project references found)

I have used this very basic config. in a single project

 <!-- example.csproj -->
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="15.9.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="xunit" Version="2.4.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="xunit.runner.visualstudio" Version="2.4.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="StrykerMutator.Core" Version="0.9.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="StrykerMutator.DotNetCoreCli" Version="0.9.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Later I ran the same commands as in docs. dotnet stryker dotnet stryker --project-file example.csproj dotnet stryker --config-file-path stryker.config.json dotnet stryker --test-runner "vstest" --reporters "['Html', 'ConsoleReport', 'ConsoleProgressBar']" --log-console "debug" Always, I see the same logs and mutation won’t start, however the unit test has no problem and it is running fine.

# terminal output 1
Stryker.NET failed to mutate your project. For more information see the logs below:

Project reference issue.

No project reference matched your --project-file=evaluator.csproj
Choose one of the following references:

# terminal output 2
Stryker.NET failed to mutate your project. For more information see the logs below:

Project reference issue.

No project references found. Please add a project reference to your test project and retry.

It would be appreciated if you have any suggestion that would help.

[rouke-broersma]

Hey @nohwnd

We no longer provide stryker as a dotnet core cli extensibility model tool, it is packaged as a dotnet global tool since version 0.10.0. So no references need to be added to your projects.

Do you have any issues using the global tool?

[richardwerkman]

Hi Masifi, Stryker is trying to find out what project should be mutated. It does by scanning for project references in your test csproj file. As I see in your example.csproj you have no project references in your project file. Thus stryker cannot find a project to mutate.

Stryker needs to find an external project to mutate as it should not mutate your test code, but your logic. It is best practice to place your logic outside of your test project.

You can see an example project file in our integration test.

When you add the project reference to your test project stryker should run fine 👍