Clarification required re use of .NET Assemblies in GAC - Use to use Globally?

Posted by Cognize on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Cognize
Published on 2010-06-03T16:11:08Z Indexed on 2010/06/03 16:14 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 367

Filed under:

.NET

|

assemblies

|

gac

|

msil

Hi,

I've done much reading and experimentation today regarding sigining of assemblies, and their installation into the GAC via various methods (mscorcfg.msc / drag and drop).

What I thought, was that once a file was in the GAC, you did not need to make references from projects in Visual studio. I know that you CAN make references via the usual Add Reference, Browse etc, but I thought it was automatic. Testing proves this not to be the case.

I came across a forum post looking to achieve the same outcome that suggested adding to the machine.config file under system.web as below.

This did not work, it in fact broke visual studio until I removed it.

   <assemblies>
                <add assembly="Blah.Framework.Logging, Version=1.0.3806.25580, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0beed4b631ebc3cd" />
            </assemblies>

What I want to know, is am I right in my assumed use of assemblies in the GAC, and is there a way of making them globally available?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about .NET

Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More
12.04: Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More
What's New in ASP.NET 4

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
The .NET Framework version 4 includes enhancements for ASP.NET 4 in targeted areas. Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express also include enhancements and new features for improved Web development. This document provides an overview of many of the new features that are included… >>> More
.NET Reflector 6, .NET Reflector Pro, TestDriven.NET, .NET 4.0 and Mono

as seen on Simple Talk - Search for 'Simple Talk'
By now you may well have noticed that .NET Reflector 6 and .NET Reflector Pro are out in the wild. The official launch happened today, although we actually put the software out last Thursday as part of a phased release plan to ensure that everything went smoothly today which, so far, it seems to have… >>> More
Redmine on Apache2 with Passenger issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I installed Redmine and run it in Apache2 with the Passenger module. Apache2 boots, Passenger module gets loaded and the Redmine welcome page is shown, however when trying to login or navigate to other parts of the Redmine site, the browser keeps loading and loading and loading forever, although the… >>> More

Related posts about assemblies

Removing all assemblies from <compilation><assemblies> in ASP.NET 4 web.config

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I removed all the 'add' elements in the compilation/assemblies element. So initially in my application's root web.config file: <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0"> <assemblies> <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> … >>> More
How to merge your referenced assemblies into the output assembly for improved usability

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
Something we've been doing in moq since the very beginning is to have a single assembly as output: Moq.dll. This reduces the clutter for users and lets them focus on what they need from our library, rather than getting the noise of whatever third-party (or internal) libraries we use to implement it… >>> More
Back to Basics: When does a .NET Assembly Dependency get loaded

as seen on West-Wind - Search for 'West-Wind'
When we work on typical day to day applications, it's easy to forget some of the core features of the .NET framework. For me personally it's been a long time since I've learned about some of the underlying CLR system level services even though I rely on them on a daily basis. I often think only about… >>> More
.NET Reactor - How to Protect 64-bit Assemblies

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have build 64-bit (x64) versions of some assemblies and am trying to obfuscate them with .NET Reactor, which claims to have 64-bit support. However, even if I disable all protection and locking options .NET Reactor is always producing 32-bit assemblies! Does anyone know how to get .NET Reactor… >>> More
Is there a "max" number of assemblies for a .net app

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Quite a few apps support plugins Are there any downsides to having a large # of plugins ? Is there a sweet spot beyond which there's a performance degradation perhaps ? What's the largest # of assemblies you've seen loaded in an app ? >>> More