GenerateResource cannot extract resources from ARM binaries

[rainersigwald]

This was reported via feedback as https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/54934/uwp-resx-strings-not-merged-into-the-pri-file-for.html and as https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/2345310/. Internal bug 189984.

If a UWP app project that builds an appx package refers to a DLL compiled for ARM that embeds resources, those resources are silently ignored rather than packaged into the PRI.

This is because of a BadImageFormatException

   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadFrom(String assemblyFile, Evidence securityEvidence, Byte[] hashValue, AssemblyHashAlgorithm hashAlgorithm, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.UnsafeLoadFrom(String assemblyFile)
   at Microsoft.Build.Tasks.ProcessResourceFiles.ReadAssemblyResources(String name, String outFileOrDir) in E:\A\_work\8\s\src\Tasks\GenerateResource.cs:line 2958

 
Thrown here and silently ignored here.

[rainersigwald]

Workaround

Compile the libraries to AnyCPU rather than ARM.

[rainersigwald]

This didn't make the cut for 15.3. Moving out.

[ericstj]

I suspect the fix here is to move that task to use a metadata reader rather than reflection. Typically its bad-news for build tools to use reflection/assembly.load since those have parity with the build-time framework not the targeted framework.

[rainersigwald]

@ericstj Yes, I've been asking for help with that approach, because as far as I can tell System.Reflection.Metadata doesn't expose enough information: #2254 (comment).

[ericstj]

Ah, I missed that. I've added some info. S.R.M is a bit confusing sometimes since it's much lower in the stack. I suspect you need to get a binary blob and wrap that in a stream.