c# - How to embed a satellite assembly into the EXE file

Question

I got the problem that I need to distribute a C# project as a single EXE file which is not an installer but the real program. It also needs to include a translation which currently resides in a subdirectory.

Is it possible to embed it directly into the binary?

Answer 1

The short answer is yes, there is a program called Assembly Linker (AL.exe) that will embed assemblies in this way. Its main use case is localization, sounds like that is what you need it for too. If so, it should be straightforward.

Eg:

al /t:lib /embed:strings.de.resources /culture:de /out:MyApp.resources.dll

or

al.exe /culture:en-US /out:binDebugen-USHelloWorld.resources.dll /embed:ResourcesMyResources.en-US.resources,HelloWorld.Resources.MyResources.en-US.resources /template:binDebugHelloWorld.exe

This is an example walkthrough of it MSDN with the above examples and more. Also you may want to read this blog post which explains its usage a bit further.