Cysharp/PrivateProxy

Source Generator and .NET 8 UnsafeAccessor based high-performance strongly-typed private accessor for unit testing and runtime.

Important

The current Roslyn/Source Generator has limitations in accessing private members of referenced projects. Moreover, accessing private members can lead to situations where it works fine in the IDE but fails during the build process. For more details, please refer to the Roslyn issue, MetadataImportOptions.All doesn't work in source generators?. To avoid confusion, I will archive this until the relationship between Source Generators and private members is improved.

PrivateProxy

Source Generator and .NET 8 UnsafeAccessor based high-performance strongly-typed private accessor for unit testing and runtime.

[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(TargetType))] generates accessor proxy.

using PrivateProxy;

public class Sample
{
    int _field1;
    int PrivateAdd(int x, int y) => x + y;
}

[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(Sample))]
public partial struct SampleProxy;

// Source Generator generate this type
partial struct SampleProxy(Sample target)
{
    [UnsafeAccessor(UnsafeAccessorKind.Field, Name = "_field1")]
    static extern ref int ___field1__(Sample target);

    [UnsafeAccessor(UnsafeAccessorKind.Method, Name = "PrivateAdd")]
    static extern int __PrivateAdd__(Sample target, int x, int y);

    public ref int _field1 => ref ___field1__(target);
    public int PrivateAdd(int x, int y) => __PrivateAdd__(target, x, y);
}

public static class SamplePrivateProxyExtensions
{
    public static SampleProxy AsPrivateProxy(this Sample target)
    {
        return new SampleProxy(target);
    }
}

// You can access like this.
var sample = new Sample();
sample.AsPrivateProxy()._field1 = 10;

Generated code is fully typed, you can access private filed via IntelliSense and when private field was changed, can check compiler error.

• No performance penalty, it can be used not only for unit testing but also for runtime
• No runtime dependency(all codes are included in source generator)
• Private accessors are strongly-typed
• Supports both instance, static and fields, properties, methods
• Supports ref, out, in, and ref readonly method parameters
• Supports readonly field and property
• Supports ref return
• Supports mutable struct
• Supports instance constructor

For example, this is the mutable struct and static, ref return, and constructor sample.

using PrivateProxy;

public struct MutableStructSample
{
    int _counter;
    void Increment() => _counter++;

    // static and ref sample
    static ref int GetInstanceCounter(ref MutableStructSample sample) => ref sample._counter;
    
    // constructor sample
    MutalbeStructSample(int x, int y) { /* ... */ }
}

// use ref partial struct
[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(MutableStructSample))]
public ref partial struct MutableStructSampleProxy;

var sample = new MutableStructSample();
var proxy = sample.AsPrivateProxy();
proxy.Increment();
proxy.Increment();
proxy.Increment();

// call private static method.
ref var counter = ref MutableStructSampleProxy.GetInstanceCounter(ref sample);

Console.WriteLine(counter); // 3
counter = 9999;
Console.WriteLine(proxy._counter); // 9999

// call private constructor and create instance.
var sample = MutableStructSampleProxy.CreateMutableStructFromConstructor(111, 222);

Installation

This library is distributed via NuGet, minimum requirement is .NET 8 and C# 12.

PM> Install-Package PrivateProxy

Package provides only analyzer and generated code does not dependent any other libraries.

Supported Members

GeneratePrivateProxy target type and member

public class/* struct */ SupportTarget
{
    // field
    private int field;
    private readonly int readOnlyField;
    
    // property
    private int Property { get; set; }
    private int GetOnlyProperty { get; }
    public int GetOnlyPrivateProperty { private get; set; }
    public int SetOnlyPrivateProperty { get; private set; }
    private int SetOnlyProperty { set => field = value; }
    private ref int RefGetOnlyProperty => ref field;
    private ref readonly int RefReadOnlyGetOnlyProperty => ref field;

    // method
    private void VoidMethod() { }
    private int ReturnMethod() => field;
    private int ParameterMethod(int x, int y) => x + y;
    private void RefOutInMethod(in int x, ref int y, out int z, ref readonly int xyz) { z = field; }
    private ref int RefReturnMethod() => ref field;
    private ref readonly int RefReadOnlyReturnMethod() => ref field;

    // static
    static int staticField;
    static readonly int staticReadOnlyField;
    static int StaticProperty { get; set; }
    static int StaticGetOnlyProperty { get; }
    public static int StaticGetOnlyPrivateProperty { private get; set; }
    public static int StaticSetOnlyPrivateProperty { get; private set; }
    private static int StaticSetOnlyProperty { set => staticField = value; }
    private static ref int StaticRefGetOnlyProperty => ref staticField;
    private static ref readonly int StaticRefReadOnlyGetOnlyProperty => ref staticField;
    private static void StaticVoidMethod() { }
    static int StaticReturnMethod() => staticField;
    static int StaticParameterMethod(int x, int y) => x + y;
    static void StaticRefOutInMethod(in int x, ref int y, out int z, ref readonly int xyz) { z = staticField; }
    static ref int StaticRefReturnMethod() => ref staticField;
    static ref readonly int StaticRefReadOnlyReturnMethod() => ref staticField;
    static ref int StaticRefReturnMethodParameter() => ref staticField;
    
    // constructor
    SupportTarget() { }
    SupportTarget(int x, int y) { }
}

Proxy type can be class => class or struct, struct => ref struct.

using PrivateProxy;

public class Sample;

// class proxy type both supports class and struct(recommend is struct)
[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(Sample))]
public partial class SampleProxy1;

[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(Sample))]
public partial struct SampleProxy2;

public struct SamplleStruct;

// struct only supports ref struct(when use standard struct, analyzer shows error)
[GeneratePrivateProxy(typeof(SamplleStruct))]
public ref partial struct SamplleStructProxy;

GeneratePrivateProxyAttribute has two constructor, when use PrivateProxyGenerateKinds parameter, can configure generate member kind.

public GeneratePrivateProxyAttribute(Type target) // use PrivateProxyGenerateKinds.All
public GeneratePrivateProxyAttribute(Type target, PrivateProxyGenerateKinds generateKinds)

[Flags]
internal enum PrivateProxyGenerateKinds
{
    All = 0, // Field | Method | Property | Instance | Static | Constructor
    Field = 1,
    Method = 2,
    Property = 4,
    Instance = 8,
    Static = 16,
    Constructor = 32,
}

Limitation

Currently, the following features are not supported

• Generics type
  • see: dotnet/runtime#89439 Implement unbound Generic support for UnsafeAccessorAttribute
• Static class, Non public return/parameter type(ignore generate)
  • see: dotnet/runtime#90081 UnsafeAccessorTypeAttribute for static or private type access
• ref struct
  • ref field can not pass to ref method parameter
• Types from external dll(for example String)
  • Probably, by enabling MetadataImportOptions.All in the Source Generator, it should be possible to read it. However, I haven't been able to find a way to do that. I need help.

License

This library is licensed under the MIT License.