/libpath

  • Article

Specifies the location of referenced assemblies.

/libpath:dirList

Arguments

Term

Definition

dirList

Required. Semicolon-delimited list of directories for the compiler to look in if a referenced assembly is not found in either the current working directory (the directory from which you are invoking the compiler) or the common language runtime's system directory. If the directory name contains a space, enclose the name in quotation marks (" ").

Remarks

The /libpath option specifies the location of assemblies referenced by the /reference option.

The compiler searches for assembly references that are not fully qualified in the following order:

  1. Current working directory. This is the directory from which the compiler is invoked.

  2. The common language runtime system directory.

  3. Directories specified by /libpath.

  4. Directories specified by the LIB environment variable.

The /libpath option is additive; specifying it more than once appends to any prior values.

Use /reference to specify an assembly reference.

To set /libpath in the Visual Studio integrated development environment

  1. Have a project selected in Solution Explorer. On the Project menu, click Properties. For more information, see Introduction to the Project Designer.

  2. Click the References tab.

  3. Click the Reference Paths... button.

  4. In the Reference Paths dialog box, enter the directory name in the Folder: box.

  5. Click Add Folder.

Example

The following code compiles T2.vb to create an .exe file. The compiler looks in the working directory, in the root directory of the C: drive, and in the New Assemblies directory of the C: drive for assembly references.

vbc /libpath:c:\;"c:\New Assemblies" /reference:t2.dll t2.vb

See Also

Reference

Sample Compilation Command Lines (Visual Basic)

Concepts

Assemblies and the Global Assembly Cache (C# and Visual Basic)

Other Resources

Visual Basic Command-Line Compiler