I defined a custom attribute 'attribute' in a library 'Lib' that I use to annotate a method 'method' in a project 'Service'. However, when unit testing 'method' (in a distinct unit test project that holds a reference to 'Service' to depend on it), I am getting :
System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type 'attribute' from assembly 'Lib'.
Why?
I tried adding a updated the dependency on 'Lib' of the unit test project, which solves the exception. However, I do not understand why it has to be updated, I thought the reference to 'attribute' could be encapsulated in 'Service' without requiring projects depending on 'Service' to upgrade 'Lib' version as well
Asked in a more abstract and generic way: is it possible to annotate the outermost layer of a code base (say, the HTTP api facade of a service), or will PostSharp annotations only work if the consumer of an API depends of the attribute class itself.
I am fairly new to C#, so I am not sure if this is a PostSharp feature, a c# dependency management feature, or a mix of both. Seems dependencies are not transitively resolved, but still, I don't expect the unit test project to directly depend on 'attribute', even though it calls a method annotated with it