The licenses.licx file is a text file located in a .NET project that notifies Visual Studio to compile a license file into an executable's resource. This enables EXE applications to be deployed to a machine without an SDK installed. Internally, Visual Studio uses lc.exe to link the license files to the resource based on the list of assemblies and types in the licenses.licx file. Visual Studio will hide this file from the solution unless you choose to "Show All Files" in the solution explorer. The licenses.licx should be an embedded resource.
Visual Studio will generate the licenses.licx file for you when dropping a component or control onto a form. However for Console Application, classes that are not a component, or for manually generating the licenses.licx, this section might be userful. Here is an example of a line in the licenses.licx file that Visual Studio creates automatically:
Atalasoft.Imaging.WinControls.WorkspaceViewer, Atalasoft.dotImage.WinControls, Version=2.1.1962.28178, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=2b02b46f7326f73b
Visual Studio generates the Type, Assembly, Version, Culture, and PublicKeyToken automatically, but only the Type and Assembly is required. For example, if you are licensing the JPEG2000 Codec, and DotImage in a console application, this is what the licenses.licx file should look like:
Atalasoft.Imaging.AtalaImage, Atalasoft.dotImage
Atalasoft.Imaging.Codec.Jpeg2000.Jp2Decoder, Atalasoft.dotImage.Jpeg2000
Please note that licenses can only be embedded in EXE's. For DLL's and ASP.NET applications, the licenses.licx file will be ignored when compiling.
If a license file cannot be found, there is an assembly version mismatch, a signature fails in the license file, or any other licensing problem, you will probably get an error message when compiling like this:
Could not transform licenses file 'licenses.licx' into a binary resource. (1)
: error LC0004
: Exception occured creating type 'Atalasoft.Imaging.AtalasoftLicenseException'
By removing the licenses.licx file (or temporarily renaming it) your project will compile and you will see a more relavent error message when running the application.
Original Article:
Q10103 - INFO: What is the licenses.licx file?