Here is the CSPROJ file for a solution I am having trouble with. One one of my machines that I've had NCRUNCH on for ages it works fine. On a new computer I get this issue.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.1</TargetFramework>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>

<ItemGroup>
</ItemGroup>


<ItemGroup>
<Reference Include="C:\REPOS\Code\Unity\Library\ScriptAssemblies\UnityEngine.UI.dll" Private="true"/>
<Reference Include="C:\Program Files\Unity\Hub\Editor\6000.0.26f1\Editor\Data\Managed\UnityEngine\UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll" Private="true" />
<Reference Include="C:\Program Files\Unity\Hub\Editor\6000.0.26f1\Editor\Data\Managed\UnityEngine\UnityEngine.Physics2DModule.dll" Private="true" />
<Reference Include="C:\Program Files\Unity\Hub\Editor\6000.0.26f1\Editor\Data\Managed\UnityEngine\UnityEngine.UIModule.dll" Private="true" />
</ItemGroup>


</Project>

The problem comes from the fact that NCRUNCH builds this CSPROJ file internally. It is missing the UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll, Physics2DModule and UIModule entirely.. only including the UnityEngine.UL.dll

Thanks in advance


<Project DefaultTargets="Build;NCrunchOutputDataQuery" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.1</TargetFramework>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Reference Include="C:\Users\PC\AppData\Local\NCrunch\22052\6\_ncrunchreferences\UnityEngine.UI.dll">
<Private>true</Private>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="NCrunchOutputDataQuery" DependsOnTargets="">
<Message Text="#Expression_4066789ab4e34b45ad122e1d11f4602d=$(OutDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt)" />
<Message Text="#Expression_a2a404feb43745c5ac8939bb49fbefc9=$(Configuration)" />
<Message Text="#Expression_ba4025a09dd2496fa1c2880c0f5d8bf3=$(TargetName)" />
<Message Text="#$TargetFrameworkDirectory=;$(TargetFrameworkDirectory)" />
<Message Text="#ReferencePath=;@(ReferencePath)" />
<Message Text="#ReferenceCopyLocalPaths=;@(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" />
<Message Text="#TargetPathWithTargetPlatformMoniker=;@(TargetPathWithTargetPlatformMoniker)" />
<Message Text="#CopiedFiles_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectoryAlways=@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectoryAlways)|@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectoryAlways->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')" Condition="'@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectoryAlways->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')'!=''" />
<Message Text="#CopiedFiles_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory=@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory)|@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')" Condition="'@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')'!=''" />
<Message Text="#CopiedFilesAllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath=@(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath)|@(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')" Condition="'@(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')'!=''" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectAssetsFile>C:\Users\PC\AppData\Local\NCrunch\22052\6\Vectrosity\obj\project.assets.json</ProjectAssetsFile>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Thanks for the reply. I REALLY appreciate you getting back so quickly on a Sunday.
What you are saying certainly tracks in terms of which of my employees have been able to get NCRUNCH working and which haven't.. and when I move the file to another folder it certainly does work.

But... Isn't this just a bug in NCRUNCH however? Sure, my DLLs exist in program files... but if they are not included in the CSPROJ that NCRUNCH makes then the code cannot compile and NCRUNCH cannot run tests...
Is there anyway to turn off this behaviour?

Just for a bit of explanation I'm using Unity game development engine and I have a Nuget package I use called Unity3D that basically automatically points the CSPROJ to the game engine DLLs. I assumed that it was some interplay between Unity3D and NCRUNCH that was causing an issue hence directly putting in the locations of the DLLS into the CSPROJ. I was then extremely surprised to find NCRUNCH still could not run... I've explicitly told it where my DLLs are (and set Private=true) and still it cannot build.

On my old machine my unity installations are at F:/UNITY INSTALLATIONS/
On my new machine they are installed into the Unity HUB in program files.
Several colleagues have had this issue in the past and given up on NCRUNCH but I'm a firm believer in it
But honestly without you telling me this about program files I would never have guessed that this was the issue.

I'd rather not have to install unity under a different location

I've moved the installation and now all working.

Thanks a lot for your help today