When I'm using aspnet_compiler.exe to pre-compile my website, I see a cvtres.exe process along with csc.exe. I'm assuming this is part of the .NET compilation process, and would also show when compiling my .NET assemblies. What is cvtres.exe and what does it do?
Windows Resource to Object Converter (CvtRes.exe) (from here)
As to what it does, well... I guess that it converts Resources to Objects.
Edit: As Scott says,
to be more specific, it is part of the C++ toolchain to turn resource
files (.res) in to compiled objects that can be linked using the
linker.
I was looking for something official that explains it, but the best I could find is an old support article that mentions it. Hope it helps!
Related
I want to investigate IL code of most .net framework library classes. Is it possible? I am trying to decompiling some dll (e.g.: System.Treading), and I only see signature of the functions. Then I go to mscorlib.dll and see only manifest. There is a way to see the real code?
You can use .NET Reflector (commercial but very good):
https://www.red-gate.com/products/dotnet-development/reflector/
You can open a .net assembly with it (.exe or .dll).
So you can also directly browse .NET Framework assemblies by selecting the framework version.
Select view IL or other language such as C# or VB code and it is done.
There is also for example this free tool (slow, very slow):
https://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler/
If you want to study the implementation of .Net classes. I suggest you use the reference code provided by Microsoft.
The main advantage of using the reference code, is that you can see the comments and other elements that will not be added to IL (like #define).
Reference Source
To study the effect of certain C# constructs on the generated IL, I would suggest using SharpLib.
SharpLib
Personnaly to decompile IL code i use ILspy , it's lightweight tool and easy to use .
you can found it in the link below :
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ilspyportable/
Best Regards .
This if my first foray into .net source code. I'm trying to understand the event handlers in WSFederationAuthenticationModule so I can override them successfully.
I downloaded the .net source (4.5.1) from referencesource.microsoft.com. When I opened the solution I found the System.IdentityModel project but there is no project for System.IdentityModel.Services, nor does it exist as a subclass of System.IdentityModel.
I've searched the entire solution for WSFederationAuthenticationModule, but it doesn't exist. My expectation was to see a one-for-one mapping of what I see in Intellisense with the projects and classes in the ndp.sln.
Can someone shed some light on why the source doesn't map to the namespaces and classes in the compiled framework and/or tell me where I can get the source code for System.IdentityModel.Services?
The sources available at http://referencesource.microsoft.com/ do not represent the complete set of assemblies available in .NET.
As you can probably notice, the set of assemblies that we have is not
complete. We don't intend to keep it that way, so we plan to expand
the set of assemblies over time.
A new look for .NET Reference Source, Immo Landwerth
On the same post quoted before you can find how to contact Microsoft about requesting new assemblies to be made available, given that they are probably added in terms of priority and how many people are actually wanting to browse those assemblies.
Having said that I already went through the process you're about to embark and the dotPeek decompiled source was enough for my needs, so you may want to try that while the actual source code is not available.
WSFederationAuthenticationModule class is located in the System.IdentityModel.Services assembly, in System.IdentityModel.Services.dll, which itself is located in your GAC. You can see the source code using a decompiler like dotPeek or ILSpy.
I'm new to .NET C# programming. I'm following few books. It is said that instead of compiling C# code directly to machine code, it is converted into an intermediate language (called MSIL aka CIL). But when I compile, I get an exe/dll file.
Is this MSIL/CIL contained in these exe/dll files?
I want to see that intermediate language code, just to get feel for its existence. How do I view it?
They are calling this exe/dll file an assembly. Are they using this "fancy word" just to differentiate these from the exe/dll files that contain native/machine code?
Yes it is, more exactly in the .text section of the PE file (portable executable = *.exe or *.dll). More information can be found here.
The best choice is to use ILSpy (Reflector is no longer free). It's a free disassembler that can dissassemble your assembly into MSIL but also C#, VB (to some extent). The .NET Framework SDK contains ILDasm, which is the official MSIL dissasembler.
Basically yes. An assembly is a file that contains MSIL code and corresponding metadata. This is not restricted to PE files per se, but all current CLR implementations use them.
If I may recommend a good book on that matter too, it's Expert .NET 2.0 IL Assembler by Serge Lidin. He's the guy who designed MSIL.
One of my favorite ways to see IL for a snippet of C# is to use the free LINQPad tool. After entering some code and choosing "C# statements" at the top (or "C# Program", whichever suits), click the "IL" button under the code entry area, and you will see the generated IL.
Using LINQPad for this is much more convenient than loading up Visual Studio or running the compiler from the command line, then loading up ILDASM and opening the .il file with a text editor.
If you want it online, .NET Fiddle is excellent. Just paste your code and click View IL option at the top right.
Another option: Use ReSharper
Source / IL synced view: left blue background line corresponds with right IL Block
In Visual Studio:
Choose ReSharper | Windows | IL Viewer
or Context Menu: Navigate | IL Code
Supports synced view of Source Code and IL - when you click on a statement in source, the corresponding block in IL is highlighted (and vice versa). Displays descriptions for IL from Microsoft Developer Network and "Common Intermediate Language (CIL) instruction set" from ECMA standard specification.
see Viewing Intermediate Language (IL) in Resharper Help. Picture above is from Resharper Help.
Free option is to use Jetbrains dotPeek
see also: "Exploring Intermediate Language (IL) with ReSharper and dotPeek", by Maarten Balliauw, January 19, 2017 - Jetbrains Blog
sharplab is an online tool, great for simple use cases. Type your code on the left, IL shows up on the right.
I believe that they are called "assemblies" because an assembly is a set of modules, assembled together by a manifest.
(source: microsoft.com)
See Assembly Contents for details.
Yes it is in assembly.
You need .NET Reflector or ILDasm.
More details on assembly check HERE.
P.S As you are following some books I will highly recommend you CLR via C#.
In many respects, .NET assemblies are similar to Java bytecode packages.
Yes. They also contain manifests and other data, but the CIL is part of the exe/dll.
Use ILDasm or Reflector - most people would say Reflector, as it is much more powerful. Both will show you what CIL was produced. Wikipedia has a list of all CIL instructions, for a better feel (it is assembly like).
I guess it is meant as an assembly of code. A good way to differentiate it from native.
I know this is an old question, and I'd prefer any of the tools above. However, in a pinch, there has been an MSIL viewer in the box with Visual Studio since at least Version 2005.
The tool is named ildasm.exe, and is located in the following folders after default Visual Studio installations:
Visual Studio 2005
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\ildasm.exe"
Visual Studio 2008
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\ildasm.exe"
Visual Studio 2010
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\ildasm.exe"
For more information, see: "How to: View Assembly Contents" in the MSDN Library.
I have just spent a couple of hours searching for the best tool that could let me view the IL code directly inside Visual Studio.
The only solution I found so far is Msiler https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/60fc53d4-e414-461b-a27c-3d5d2a53f637
it works quite well!
Otherwise the second best solution, but without visual studio integration, is JetBrains dotPeek, which is quite awesome to be honest.
From my experience the best source of IL-related knowledge is Andrew Troelsen “Pro C# and .NET Platform”. Starting from 3rd edition he has really, really outstanding chapter (approx 50 pages) on how to understand IL and even write your own code and use ILAsm. I’ve employed that information to investigate whether multiple inheritance exists in .NET world. Also you could try to employ some very interesting features in IL (e.g. filtering of exceptions which only exists in VB but not in C#).
I highly recommend to read that chapter.
Eventually, .NET Reflector is an enterprise standard for investigating IL code of assemblies and Richter's book is definitely "must read" stuff. But from other books like mentioned above you could reveal really useful things :)
Yes, each assembly in .NET world holds some IL code (alongsite with manifest) which could be viewed thru Reflector or ILDasm. Even more, Reflector could show you C# and VB optimized code. This means that any person could view the source code of an assembly and that's why in commercial products obfuscators are used.
I you want to view the intermediate language, Try downloading JustDecompile from Telerik (Which is currently free, requires a sign up though).
Drag in your DLL and choose IL from the drop down box at the top!
There is now another option. You can do this in VS Code with this extension built with Roslyn. This is currently limited to .NET Core.
Hi kind of a newbie question.
So apparently this library is popular for this sort of thing:
http://extracting.codeplex.com/
When I download that all I get is a .dll
I can't find documentation on their api, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this .dll (I know how to load in functions from DLLs and such, but how when I don't even know whats in it?), can someone help me out.
start a new c# project. Open the add reference dialog and use the broswe tab, select the dll.
now open the object browser - you will see all the functions etc
edit: of course you can also download the source code from codeplex; always the ultimate form of documentation
There's a link on the same page pointing to the API documentation containing sample usage.
There is a link to an example on the codeplex site
http://extracting.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Web%20Data%20Extracting%20and%20Analyzing%20Framework%20API&referringTitle=Home
They have limited documentation on the codeplex site, available here.
I would recommend checking that documentation to see if it meets your needs, and asking any addition questions in their Discussions Page.
To use the functionality of the DLL from your project, right click on your project file in the Solution Explorer and choose "Add Reference..". You will be presented with a dialog to choose the reference you want to add. To choose the DLL from this library, browse to it from the Browse tab.
Once you've added the reference, you won't notice a whole lot of difference - all adding a reference does is give you access to the classes that are defined withing that DLL (called an "Assembly" in .NET terms). Think of it like getting a new set of "built-in" classes in your project that you can now use. You'll want to find some documentation or ask for help on the site to learn how to use these classes.
if you are using visual studio, you can just include the dll into the reference folder of your project and then use the "using" keyword to include the library into your namespace ...
If this is a .NET assembly, then reflector will tell you what classes and methods are available. You can also reference the DLL from a C# project and then press "ctrl-alt-j" to bring up the object browser to see that data inside of Visual Studio.
You can download the source code from that page.
Look at the classes and namespaces. You can add a reference to the DLL to your project and add "using" with the namespace of the DLL to the top of any code files you need to use it in in order to have access to the classes.
Additionally you can look at some of the examples posted.
Load the dll into .net Reflector. This will list the contents of the dll and any code comments associated with the API.
Is there a tool to import/convert COM type libraries into C# code rather than generating an assembly? The TLBIMP tool and the TypeLibaryConverter class only generate assemblies.
I've had some success ripping the C# ComImport definitions by running Reflector over the generated Interop assembly and copying a pasting the disassembled source, but this usually requires quite a bit of manual patching up before it'll compile.
Desired goal is a single EXE without satellite Interop DLLs, so perhaps the answer is to use ILMerge to effectively embed the interop DLL in the EXE.
I was sure in the past I'd come across such a tool - but maybe it dreamt it :-)
I'm not so sure it is going to be useful to you, but the source code for a managed version of Tlbimp.exe has been released on CodePlex. VS2010 will definitely solve your problem.
This won't help you out today, but there is a feature coming in the next version of C#. It's called NoPia or Type Embedding depending on which presentation you read. This feature essentially will link a PIA assembly into whatever project you reference it from. The end resulrt is a single EXE which no need to deploy an interop/PIA DLL.
Misha's post on the subject: http://blogs.msdn.com/mshneer/archive/2008/10/28/type-embedding-support-in-c.aspx
Short term though, you may have to go with ILMerge or reflector + copy code.
As I originally suspected the best solution is going with ILMerge. I can't be selective about parts of a COM API to embed, but it works well enough.
Here is the Post Build Event Command Line I'm using, which should be easy enough to reuse:
set MERGEFILES=Interop.Foo.dll Interop.Bar.dll
if "$(ConfigurationName)" == "Release" (
ren "$(TargetFileName)" "_$(TargetFileName)"
"$(ProgramFiles)\Microsoft\ILMerge\ILMerge.exe" /out:"$(TargetFileName)" "_$(TargetFileName)" %MERGEFILES%
del "_$(TargetFileName)"
del %MERGEFILES%
)