How to stop the localized Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.*.resources.dll files from getting published by ASP.NET Core? - asp.net-core

Question

When I publish an ASP.NET Core 3.0 project, I get a few localized folders where the 4 assemblies shown are in each of these folders. I am not sure why these folders and files get included. None of my packages reference a CodeAnalysis package.
I added <PreserveCompilationContext>false</PreserveCompilationContext> in the csproj file but it didn't help. Is there a way to exclude them?

Answer 1

Add this:
<SatelliteResourceLanguages>en</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
to the .csproj file:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
<SatelliteResourceLanguages>en</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
</PropertyGroup>
As suggested, you can use none to exclude all of them:
<SatelliteResourceLanguages>none</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
and taking consideration languages do you want like english and spanish:
<SatelliteResourceLanguages>en;es</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
Works with VS2019 and other versions
UPDATE 2021/2022:
Still working with Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 6
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
<SatelliteResourceLanguages>en</SatelliteResourceLanguages>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
</PropertyGroup>

Answer 2

You get a lot of language folders containing CodeAnalysis.dll files in your published output if you have a project reference to Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design, which is needed for scaffolding controllers. If that is true for your project, change the package reference in your .csproj file to include ExcludeAssets="all"
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="3.0.0" ExcludeAssets="All" />
For example, old *.csproj file
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
<UserSecretsId>aspnet-foo-4E53EF45-B3BE-4943-81BE-2449DC5AA2BC</UserSecretsId>
<BlazorLinkOnBuild>false</BlazorLinkOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- ... -->
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design"
Version="3.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- ... -->
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
New file *.csproj should be
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
<UserSecretsId>aspnet-foo-4E53EF45-B3BE-4943-81BE-2449DC5AA2BC</UserSecretsId>
<BlazorLinkOnBuild>false</BlazorLinkOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- ... -->
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design"
Version="3.0.0"
ExcludeAssets="All" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- ... -->
</ItemGroup>
</Project>

Answer 3

In my case, the source of these localized folders was from the package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RuntimeCompilation. It has a dependency on Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Razor. You can read more about the purpose of the package here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/views/view-compilation?view=aspnetcore-3.1
You cannot just exclude an asset when trying to take advantage of the package. My work-around was to conditionally include the package reference whenever the project is in debug mode.
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|AnyCPU'">
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RuntimeCompilation" Version="3.1.1" />
</ItemGroup>
I then used an #if pre-processor directive to conditionally run the code that enables razor runtime compilation.
#if DEBUG
services.AddRazorPages().AddRazorRuntimeCompilation();
#else
services.AddRazorPages();
#endif
Please note: You may need to delete your bin folder to see the folders removed after a build. Also, make sure you are building under the correct solution configuration.
I was able to find a Github issue describing this exact scenario, but unfortunately it was never resolved. https://github.com/dotnet/extensions/issues/2247