AOT publish includes satellite assemblies in publish folder #124191

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1. dotnet-policy-service

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3. baronfel commented on Feb 9, 2026

   

   baronfel

   on Feb 9, 2026

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   I gave this problem to Copilot CLI equipped with the viktorhofer/dotnet-skills plugin, and here was its analysis after publishing + inspecting the binlog:

   Root Cause Analysis

   The satellite assemblies (e.g. es\AppName.resources.dll) end up in the NativeAOT publish output because the NativeAOT build integration correctly embeds them into the native binary but fails to remove them from the publish file list, so the SDK's generic publish pipeline copies them to the output directory anyway.

   How satellite assemblies flow through the pipeline

   Step 1: NativeAOT collects satellite assemblies for embedding

   In Microsoft.NETCore.Native.Publish.targets (dotnet/runtime), _ComputeIlcCompileInputs gathers satellite assemblies from two sources:

   <IlcSatelliteAssembly Include="@(_SatelliteAssembliesToPublish)" />
   <IlcSatelliteAssembly Include="@(IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath)" />

   • _SatelliteAssembliesToPublish = satellite assemblies from package/project references (extracted from _ResolvedCopyLocalPublishAssets by ComputeManagedAssembliesToCompileToNative)
   • IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath = the project's own satellite assemblies (e.g. es\52913-resx-in-nativeaot.resources.dll)

   These are passed to ILC via --satellite: in Microsoft.NETCore.Native.targets, which embeds them into the native binary. This part works correctly — the app can resolve localized strings even if the satellite DLLs are deleted from disk.

   Step 2: ComputeLinkedFilesToPublish cleans up the publish list — but misses the project's own satellites

   ComputeLinkedFilesToPublish runs BeforeTargets="ComputeResolvedFilesToPublishList" and modifies the publish list:

   <_ResolvedCopyLocalPublishAssets Remove="@(_AssembliesToSkipPublish)" />  <!-- removes package satellites -->
   <_ResolvedCopyLocalPublishAssets Include="@(_LinkedResolvedAssemblies)" />
   <_DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath Remove="@(_DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath)" />
   
   <IntermediateAssembly Remove="@(IntermediateAssembly)" />  <!-- replaces managed .dll with native binary -->
   <IntermediateAssembly Include="$(NativeBinary)" />

   This successfully removes package-reference satellite assemblies (via _AssembliesToSkipPublish) and replaces the managed assembly with the native binary. But it does NOT remove IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath.

   Step 3: The SDK unconditionally re-adds the project's satellite assemblies to publish

   In Microsoft.NET.Publish.targets (dotnet/sdk), ComputeResolvedFilesToPublishList unconditionally includes:

   <!-- Copy satellite assemblies. -->
   <ResolvedFileToPublish Include="@(IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath)">
     <RelativePath>%(IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath.Culture)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</RelativePath>
     <CopyToPublishDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToPublishDirectory>
   </ResolvedFileToPublish>

   Since IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath was never cleared, the project's own satellite assemblies get added to ResolvedFileToPublish and are copied to the publish directory — even though they've already been embedded into the native binary.

   Note that this same target does have a NativeAOT-aware condition for the runtime config file (line 525):

   Condition="'$(GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles)' == 'true'  and '$(PublishAot)' != 'true'"

   Suggested fix

   The ComputeLinkedFilesToPublish target in Microsoft.NETCore.Native.Publish.targets should also clear the project's intermediate satellite assemblies:

   <IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath Remove="@(IntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath)" />

   This mirrors the pattern already used for IntermediateAssembly and _DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath in the same target.

   👍React with 👍2Reacted by Noah Gilson and Viktor Hofer

   ❤️React with ❤️1Reacted by Noah Gilson
4. dsplaisted

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5. nagilson

   added a commit that references this issue on Feb 9, 2026

   don't set invariant globalzn - resource copy is an aot bug https://gi…

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   b8e332a
6. dsplaisted

   transferred this issue fromdotnet/sdkon Feb 9, 2026
7. dotnet-policy-service

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10. jkotas

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11. github-project-automation

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12. dotnet-policy-service commented on Feb 9, 2026

    

    dotnet-policy-servicebot

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    Tagging subscribers to this area: @agocke, @dotnet/ilc-contrib
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13. sbomer

    closed this as completedin d4cc2d9on Mar 24, 2026
14. dotnet-policy-service

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15. pull

    added a commit that references this issue on Mar 24, 2026

    Fix NativeAOT publish including satellite assemblies despite embeddin…

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    This issue will close once commit d4cc2d9 is merged into the 'main' branch.

    d4cc2d9
16. github-actions

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