Don’t hard code you Signing Key file Path!

For a long time, if I want to sign an assembly I’ll put this line into the AssemblyInfo.cs file [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile(@"<PATH_TO_FILE>\file.snk")]

This is fine until we want to automate the build on a build Server which could have a deferent path. The build will fail!

The right Way

1. Remove that line from AssemblyInfo.
2. Change the project file to add these propertyGroup:
3. Add <keyFilePath><PATH_TO_FILE>\file.snk</keyFilePath>.
4. Add this code to the project file

     <PropertyGroup>
       <SignAssembly>true</SignAssembly>
     </PropertyGroup>
     <PropertyGroup>
       <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>$(keyFilePath)</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
     </PropertyGroup>
   

1. Now you can override the path on build by providing /p:keyFilePath="%KEY_FILE_PATH%" to MsBuild.