Comments on: .NET Assembly FAQ – Part 4 – Global Assembly Cache

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:13:33 +0000

Great article — much better than what is on MSDN.

One thing you didn’t quite address — what about in an IIS production server environment? We want to install some third-party DLLs (which don’t really change, unlike our app’s DLLs) into the GAC for memory benefits (otherwise, we’d have one copy of each third-party DLL per site on the server, and we have 150 sites per server).

In your article, you refer to using an Installer but in this case it’s a third-party component and their installer would try to install and set it up in Visual Studio, which of course isn’t on a production IIS server. Likewise, gacutil is part of Visual Studio or the Windows SDK, neither of which we really want to install on a production server. What are people doing to install DLLs on production servers?

By: Prachi Rane

Prachi Rane — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:26:27 +0000

same assembly r stored in gac using gac what is another solution.b’coz one interviewer was asking me that.can anybody tell me.plz send me reply to my mail.

By: Tarmiz

Tarmiz — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:49:48 +0000

If you are developing several services to be used via the GAC, can you just copy the same .pfx file and use in all of them, or is it better practice to have separate ones for each applicaiton? Also, what would happen if the original .pfx file disappears?

By: john

john — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:26:21 +0000

Hi Timm, hope u r just doing well n everything is going fine for.Again i’ve come up with a question. Say i’ve built a vb.net project and Used crystal report for reports and sql-server 2005 as backend. now how do i make the exe or installer so that when i’ll install my project’s exe in client’s machine, i don’t need to install sql-server and crystal report there explicitly? it’ll automatically install sql-server/crystal report in client’s machine while installing my vb.net installer.In otrher words, how will my exe incorporate sql-server/crystal report so that installing my vb.net exe in client’s machine ‘ll automatically install sql-server/crystal report as well? u’ve already helped me a lot in a ‘to the point’ manner and it gets me a lot of faith in your knowladge n skills.please help me inthis issue as well, thanx in advance, good man, god almighty bless u, i can assure u this little that whatever u’ve taught me so far, i’ve learnt them appropriately without any confusion. Thanx again to spend your valuable time on my blog.Byeee for now, Have a nice time ahead.

By: john

john — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 06:39:31 +0000

Hi timm, actually i’m running short of words 2 thank u, u’ve been an angel 2 me.ur guidence not only helped me acheive the task but cleared my all doubts, it provided me with much awaited logical guidence.both of my questions are answered correctly and appropriately.it was short but to the point and finally i tried it and it’s been a successful try. thanx again. whoever u r, wherever u r, hope God ‘ll always by ur side.stay happy, take care. I’m from india n a software programmer, done many vb application projects but now trying 2 switch to vb.net, n ur support helped me 2 a great extent towards become a good vb.net programmer. thanx again, u r definitely a helpful n good human being. May be someday i’ll annoy u again with a much complexed question.hahaha…..but never change urself, i’ll never mind 2 meet u someday, good man. byeee for now…

By: timm

timm — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:07:47 +0000

@john: See this article on how to add GAC assemblies to the Add Reference dialog:
http://www.csharp411.com/adding-assemblies-to-the-visual-studio-add-reference-dialog/

And this article explains why you’d want to use the GAC:
http://www.csharp411.com/net-assembly-faq-part-4-global-assembly-cache/

Cheers!

By: john

john — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:02:06 +0000

Hi Timm, hope you r doing just gr8.Here i’m with another very important question….i’ve installed a dll file namely “msgclass.dll’ into GAC successfully after strong naming it. even it’s showing in C:Windowsassembly folder. But when i’m trying to implement it in my new windows_application project, by following “right click on project name–>add reference” –>searching under .net tab, but it’s not showing there. i can add that reference by browsing it, but why should i do that when i’ve already installed it in GAC without any error and it’s there in windows/assembly directory? what might go wrong with it? I’m just waiting for ur answers eagerly. Your answers so far helped me a lot to develop and grab the concept.Please Timm, reply as soon u notice my questions. Have a nice day, God bless u.

By: john

john — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:42:44 +0000

hi timm, thank u a lot…u r really a nice n helpful guy, god bless u. I followd ur answer n my 2nd question was perfectly answered. thanx again. but my 1st question was–i made 2 different projects but ran 4times in different circumstaces and in any case i never kept my dlls or assemblies inside my project folders.for 1st project i made reference to ‘mylib.dll’ wich is in,say ‘myfolder’, and not in my proj folder.and i cud run it perfectly. then i deleted ‘myfolder’(SHIFT+Del) along with ‘mylib.dll’ and wanted 2 see what difference it makes.But again my project ran perfectly even though ‘mylib.dll’ had been deleted. In case of 2nd project, i made ‘nextlib.dll’ in say ‘next’ folder. then i strong named it and installed in GAC. then i made a reference to ‘nextlib.dll’ from my windows_application project and ran it. it was perfect. 2 see the difference i again deleted ‘next’ folder along with it’s ‘nextlib.dll’(SHIFT+Del).And then ran it, but this time also it ran perfectly though i already had deleted the physical ‘nextlib.dll’. my question is– when i can run both the projects similerly (before and after deleting corresponding dlls) without having the referenced dll file present in computer, then what extra benefit do i enjoy while installing dlls into GAC? in other words- what r the differences @ runtime between having dlls installed into GAC and not Having dlls into GAC?

By: timm

timm — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:59:30 +0000

@john: It’s a little tough to follow your question, but I think I can answer the last one. Once you add an assembly to the GAC, it should appear in the “.NET” tab of the Visual Studio “Add Reference” dialog. Select it there, and add a reference to your project. Whereas before you added it to the GAC, you had to find your assembly in the “Browse” tab.

By: john

john — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:41:15 +0000

hi timm, hope u r doing well….so here’s my question-
i’m new to .net environment, however i’ve tried successfuly programming by building class library dlls and referencing them from windows application.they ran fine.I deleted those dlls along with their folder and then also ran well.I created new dlls,strong named them and installed them in GAC.Then i implemented those assemblies in my new windows application.They ran well again.I deleted again those dlls(Shift+Delete) and then again they ran well.And i never kept my dlls in any instance, into my project folders. Then what r the benefits of installing dlls in GAC? Another question is, after succesfully installing dlls/assemblies into GAC, again i need to make references to them by browsing the location to implement in application project.Cant i simply import them as i do incase of system.data or system.windows.forms without making explicite reference?