You can use PostSharp to build applications that target a wide range of target devices. This article lists the requirements for development, build and end-user devices.
Important
Please read our Supported Platforms Policies on our web site as it contains important explanations, restrictions and disclaimers regarding this article.
Supported programming languages
This version of PostSharp supports the following languages:
C# 7.3,
VB 15.5.
You may use PostSharp with an unsupported language version at your own risks by setting the PostSharpSkipLanguageVersionValidation MSBuild property to True. There are two risks in doing that: inconsistent or erroneous behavior of the current version of PostSharp, and breaking changes in the future version of PostSharp that will support this language version.
Requirements on development workstations and build servers
This section lists the supported platforms, and most importantly platform versions, on which PostSharp is intended to run.
The following software components need to be installed before PostSharp can be used:
Any of the following versions of Microsoft Visual Studio:
Visual Studio 2015 Update 3.
Visual Studio 2017 RTW (15.0) or Update 1 (15.9).
The debugging experience may be inconsistent with other IDEs than Visual Studio or when PostSharp Tools for Visual Studio are not installed.
.NET Framework 4.7.1 or later.
Any of the following operating systems:
Windows 10: any version in mainstream Microsoft support, except LTSB and S editions.
On build agents only: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016.
Optionally, one of the following versions of .NET Core:
.NET Core SDK 2.1 (LTS). Minimum supported version is 2.1.500. .NET Core SDK 2.2.
Requirements on end-user devices
The following table displays the versions of the target frameworks that are supported by the current release of PostSharp and its components.
| Package | .NET Framework | .NET Core | .NET Standard* |
|---|---|---|---|
| PostSharp | 3.5 SP1, 4.0 |
1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 | 1.3 or later |
| PostSharp.Patterns.Common PostSharp.Patterns.Aggregation PostSharp.Patterns.Threading PostSharp.Patterns.Model PostSharp.Patterns.Diagnostics |
4.0 |
1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 | 1.3 or later |
| PostSharp.Patterns.Xaml | 4.0 |
- | - |
| PostSharp.Patterns.Caching | 4.6, 4.7 | 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 | 2.0 or later |
Note
.NET Framework 4.0 and 4.5 are no longer supported by Microsoft. Although we still provide libraries targeting them, we no longer run our tests on these specific versions of the .NET Framework.
Note
PostSharp does not implicitly support all platforms that support .NET Standard. Only platforms mentioned in this table are supported.
Compatibility with ASP.NET
There are two ways to develop web applications using Microsoft .NET:
**ASP.NET Application projects ** are very similar to other projects; they need to be built before they can be executed. Since they are built using MSBuild, you can use PostSharp as with any other kind of project.
**ASP.NET Site projects ** are very specific: there is no MSBuild project file (a site is actually a directory), and these projects must not be built. ASP.NET Site projects are not supported.
Compatibility with Microsoft Code Analysis
By default, PostSharp reconfigures the build process so that Code Analysis is executed on the assemblies as they were before being enhanced by PostSharp. If you are using Code Analysis as an integrated part of Visual, no change of configuration is required.
You can request the Code Analysis to execute on the output of PostSharp by setting the ExecuteCodeAnalysisOnPostSharpOutput MSBuild property to True. For more information, see Configuring Projects Using MSBuild.
Compatibility with Microsoft Code Contracts
PostSharp configures the build process so that Microsoft Code Contracts is executed before PostSharp. Additionally, Microsoft Code Contracts' static analyzer will be executed synchronously (instead of asynchronously without PostSharp), which will significantly impact the build performance.
Compatibility with Obfuscators
PostSharp generates assemblies that are theoretically compatible with all obfuscators.
Note
PostSharp Diagnostics is not designed to work with obfuscated assemblies.
Caution
PostSharp emits constructs that are not emitted by Microsoft compilers (for instance methodof). These unusual constructs may reveal bugs in third-party tools, because they are generally tested against the output of Microsoft compilers.
Known Incompatibilities
PostSharp is not compatible with the following products or features:
| Product or Feature | Reason | Workaround |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio 2013 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 6.0. |
| Visual Studio 2010 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 3.1. |
| Visual Studio 2012 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 5.0. |
| ILMerge | Bug in ILMerge | Use another merging product (such as ILPack, SmartAssembly). |
| Edit-and-Continue | Not Supported | Rebuild the project after edits |
| Silverlight 3 or earlier | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 2.1. |
| Silverlight 4 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 3.1. |
| Silverlight 5 | Low customer demand. | Use PostSharp 4.3. |
| .NET Compact Framework | No support for PCL | Use PostSharp 2.1. |
| .NET Framework 2.0 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Target .NET Framework 3.5 or use PostSharp 3.1. |
| Windows Phone 7 | No longer under Microsoft mainstream support | Use PostSharp 3.1 |
| Windows Phone 8, WinRT | Low customer demand. | Use PostSharp 4.3 |
| Visual Studio Express | Microsoft's licensing policy | Use Visual Studio Community Edition |
| ASP.NET Web Sites | Not built using MSBuild | Convert the ASP.NET Web Site to an ASP.NET Web Application. |
| Universal Windows Platform (UWP) | Not supported (low customer demand) | Contact PostSharp support team. |
| Xamarin | Support suspended (deprioritized because of low customer demand) | Use PostSharp 4.3. Contact PostSharp support team to discuss prioritization. |
| Mono, Unity3D | Unsupported | None. |