Removing files from ClickOnce application manifest

originally posted 2015-02-05

1	originally posted 2015-02-05

We have a ClickOnce application for which we are merging and/or embedding all of our dependency assemblies into a single assembly and obfuscating with Red Gate’s SmartAssembly. ClickOnce doesn’t know about the merging and embedding, so it includes the non-obfuscated individual assembly files when it publishes. It turns out that it’s easy to exclude these files from the deployment at publish-time from Visual Studio.

From Project properties …
Publish tab …
Application Files button …
Select “Exclude” for the Publish Status of the desired files …
Save project …
Publish.

To do this to an already-published ClickOnce application requires more work. Here’s a LINQPad script example to programmatically find a file, remove it and re-sign the appropriate files.

/*
Written with LINQPad 
Programmatically remove files from a published ClickOnce application
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
*/

string sourceDir = @"C:\published\my_app_1_0_0_135\";
string manifestFilePath = sourceDir + @"\my_app.exe.manifest";
string applicationManifestFilePath = sourceDir + @"\my_app.application";
string mageFilePath = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools\mage.exe";
string certFilePath = @"C:\certificates\MyAuthenticodeCertificate.pfx";
string certPassword = "foo";

//load .manifest XML
var doc = XDocument.Load(manifestFilePath);

//rename the files w/o the .deploy extension
string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(sourceDir,"*.deploy");
foreach(string filePath in filePaths)
{
  string realName = filePath.Replace(".deploy",string.Empty);
  File.Move(filePath,realName);
  File.Delete(filePath);
}

//locate and remove the desired entry (e.g. the "MyComponentToRemove.dll" of dependency type of "install")
XNamespace ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2";
doc.Descendants(ns + "dependentAssembly")
   .Where(x =&amp;gt; (string)x.Attribute("dependencyType") == "install")
   .Where(x=&amp;gt; ((string)x.Attribute("codebase")).Equals("MyComponentToRemove.dll"))
   .Select(x =&amp;gt; x.Parent)
   .Remove();
 
//save .manifest XML
doc.Save(manifestFilePath);
 
//re-sign .manifest
Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = mageFilePath;
startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-update \"{0}\" -cf \"{1}\" -pwd \"{2}\"",manifestFilePath,certFilePath,certPassword);
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

//re-sign .application
process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = mageFilePath;
startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-update \"{0}\" -appmanifest \"{1}\" -cf \"{2}\" -pwd \"{3}\"",applicationManifestFilePath,manifestFilePath,certFilePath,certPassword);
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

//rename files with .deploy extension
foreach(string filePath in filePaths)
{
  string realName = filePath.Replace(".deploy",string.Empty);
  File.Move(realName,filePath);
  File.Delete(realName);
}

Written with LINQPad

Programmatically remove files from a published ClickOnce application

using System.Diagnostics;

using System.IO;

using System.Xml;

string sourceDir = @"C:\published\my_app_1_0_0_135\";

string manifestFilePath = sourceDir + @"\my_app.exe.manifest";

string applicationManifestFilePath = sourceDir + @"\my_app.application";

string mageFilePath = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools\mage.exe";

string certFilePath = @"C:\certificates\MyAuthenticodeCertificate.pfx";

string certPassword = "foo";

//load .manifest XML

var doc = XDocument.Load(manifestFilePath);

//rename the files w/o the .deploy extension

string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(sourceDir,"*.deploy");

foreach(string filePath in filePaths)

{

string realName = filePath.Replace(".deploy",string.Empty);

File.Move(filePath,realName);

File.Delete(filePath);

}

//locate and remove the desired entry (e.g. the "MyComponentToRemove.dll" of dependency type of "install")

XNamespace ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2";

doc.Descendants(ns + "dependentAssembly")

.Where(x =&gt; (string)x.Attribute("dependencyType") == "install")

.Where(x=&gt; ((string)x.Attribute("codebase")).Equals("MyComponentToRemove.dll"))

.Select(x =&gt; x.Parent)

.Remove();

//save .manifest XML

doc.Save(manifestFilePath);

//re-sign .manifest

Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();

System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();

startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

startInfo.FileName = mageFilePath;

startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-update \"{0}\" -cf \"{1}\" -pwd \"{2}\"",manifestFilePath,certFilePath,certPassword);

process.StartInfo = startInfo;

process.Start();

//re-sign .application

process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();

startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();

startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

startInfo.FileName = mageFilePath;

startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-update \"{0}\" -appmanifest \"{1}\" -cf \"{2}\" -pwd \"{3}\"",applicationManifestFilePath,manifestFilePath,certFilePath,certPassword);

process.StartInfo = startInfo;

process.Start();

//rename files with .deploy extension

foreach(string filePath in filePaths)

{

string realName = filePath.Replace(".deploy",string.Empty);

File.Move(realName,filePath);

File.Delete(realName);

}