dotnet swagger tofile : FileNotFoundException dotnet-swagger.xml

The Problem

Trying to generate swagger from the compiled dll using this command with the swagger CLI:

dotnet swagger tofile --output "swagger-output.json" "C:\projectpath\bin\debug\net5.0\project.dll" v1

I encountered this error:

FileNotFoundException: Could not find file 'C:\projectpath\bin\debug\net5.0\dotnet-swagger.xml'

The suspicious thing here is the name of the xml file it is looking for, it should be looking for my projects xml file, not dotnet-swagger.xml!

This getting started tutorial has some code that causes this problem...when it loads the xml comments it does this to get the assembly:

var xmlFile = $"{Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Name}.xml";

This works fine for most(all?) other use cases but when trying to generate the swagger using the CLI the executing assembly is dotnet-swagger.

The Fix

Instead of:

Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Name

Use this:

Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(ClassInTheCorrectProject)).GetName().Name

Other Possible Causes

Make sure the xml file is being created in the same folder as the dll and your generate command is passing the correct path.

Comments

[Mark Johnston]

I'm late to the party... MANY THANKS FOR THIS!! I'm not sure I would have tracked this down without your post!

It makes perfect sense, but I didn't question it during Swashbuckle/Swagger generation since it works as expected at runtime.

Thanks again for taking time to share.

[Wallism]

glad it helped :)