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-reference (Visual Basic)

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Causes the compiler to make type information in the specified assemblies available to the project you are currently compiling.

Syntax

-reference:fileList

or

-r:fileList

Arguments

Term Definition
fileList Required. Comma-delimited list of assembly file names. If the file name contains a space, enclose the name in quotation marks.

Remarks

The file(s) you import must contain assembly metadata. Only public types are visible outside the assembly. The -addmodule option imports metadata from a module.

If you reference an assembly (Assembly A) which itself references another assembly (Assembly B), you need to reference Assembly B if:

  • A type from Assembly A inherits from a type or implements an interface from Assembly B.

  • A field, property, event, or method that has a return type or parameter type from Assembly B is invoked.

Use -libpath to specify the directory in which one or more of your assembly references is located.

For the compiler to recognize a type in an assembly (not a module), it must be forced to resolve the type. One example of how you can do this is to define an instance of the type. Other ways are available to resolve type names in an assembly for the compiler. For example, if you inherit from a type in an assembly, the type name then becomes known to the compiler.

The Vbc.rsp response file, which references commonly used .NET Framework assemblies, is used by default. Use -noconfig if you do not want the compiler to use Vbc.rsp.

The short form of -reference is -r.

Example

The following command compiles source file Input.vb and reference assemblies from Metad1.dll and Metad2.dll to produce Out.exe.

vbc -reference:metad1.dll,metad2.dll -out:out.exe input.vb

See also