Develop Reference

Reflection only assembly loading in .Net Core

I have a .Net Framework WPF application that I'm currently migrating to .Net6. At startup it examines certain assemblies in the executable folder looking for any with a custom assembly attribute. Those that have this are then loaded into the current appdomain. (Note that some of these assemblies may already be in the appdomain, as they are projects in the running application's solution).
This is the 4.x code:
private void LoadAssemblies(string folder)
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve +=
(s, e) => Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad(e.Name);
var assemblyFiles = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.Client.dll");
foreach (var assemblyFile in assemblyFiles)
{
var reflectionOnlyAssembly = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(assemblyFile);
if (ContainsCustomAttr(reflectionOnlyAssembly))
{
var assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(assemblyFile);
ProcessAssembly(assembly);
}
}
}
The custom assembly attribute (that this code is looking for) has a string property containing a path to a XAML resource file within that assembly. The ProcessAssembly() method adds this resource file to the application's merged dictionary, something like this:
var resourceUri = string.Format(
"pack://application:,,,/{0};component/{1}",
assembly.GetName().Name,
mimicAssemblyAttribute.DataTemplatePath);
var uri = new Uri(resourceUri, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
application.Resources.MergedDictionaries.Add(new ResourceDictionary { Source = uri });
Just to reiterate, all this works as it should in the .Net 4.x application.
.Net6 on the other hand doesn't support reflection-only loading, nor can you create a second app domain in which to load the assemblies. I rewrote the above code by loading the assemblies being examined into what I understand is a temporary, unloadable context:
private void LoadAssemblies(string folder)
{
var assemblyFiles = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.Client.dll");
using (var ctx = new TempAssemblyLoadContext(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory))
{
foreach (var assemblyFile in assemblyFiles)
{
var assm = ctx.LoadFromAssemblyPath(assemblyFile);
if (ContainsCustomAttr(assm))
{
var assm2 = Assembly.LoadFrom(assemblyFile);
ProcessAssembly(assm2);
}
}
}
}
private class TempAssemblyLoadContext : AssemblyLoadContext, IDisposable
{
private AssemblyDependencyResolver _resolver;
public TempAssemblyLoadContext(string readerLocation)
: base(isCollectible: true)
{
_resolver = new AssemblyDependencyResolver(readerLocation);
}
public void Dispose()
{
Unload();
}
protected override Assembly Load(AssemblyName assemblyName)
{
var path = _resolver.ResolveAssemblyToPath(assemblyName);
if (path != null)
{
return LoadFromAssemblyPath(path);
}
return null;
}
protected override IntPtr LoadUnmanagedDll(string unmanagedDllName)
{
var path = _resolver.ResolveUnmanagedDllToPath(unmanagedDllName);
if (path != null)
{
return LoadUnmanagedDllFromPath(path);
}
return IntPtr.Zero;
}
}
(Note the ProcessAssembly() method is unchanged).
This code "works" in so much as it goes through the motions without crashing. However at a later point when the application starts creating the views, I get the following exception:
The component '..ModeSelectorView' does not have a resource identified by the URI '/.;component/views/modeselector/modeselectorview.xaml'.
This particular view resides in a project of this application's solution, so the assembly will already be in the appdomain. The assembly also contains that custom attribute so the above code will be trying to load it, although I believe that Assembly.LoadFrom() should not load the same assembly again?
Just in case, I modified the "if" block in my LoadAssemblies() method to ignore assemblies already in the app domain:
if (ContainsCustomAttr(assm) && !AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().Contains(assm))
Sure enough, a breakpoint shows that the assembly in question (containing that view) is ignored and not loaded into the app domain. However I still get the same exception further down the line.
In fact I can comment out the entire "if" block so no assemblies are being loaded into the app domain, and I still get the exception, suggesting that it's caused by loading the assembly into that AssemblyLoadContext.
Also, a breakpoint shows that context is being unloaded via its Dispose() method, upon dropping out of the "using" block in the LoadAssemblies() method.
Edit: even with the "if" block commented out, a breakpoint at the end of the method shows that all the assemblies being loaded by ctx.LoadFromAssemblyPath() are ending up in AppDomain.Current. What am I not understanding? Is the context part of the appdomain and not a separate "area"? How can I achieve this "isolated" loading of assemblies in a similar way to the "reflection only" approach that I was using in .Net 4.x?

Okay, so I found the answer, which is to use MetadataLoadContext. This is essentially the .Net Core replacement for reflection-only loading:
private void LoadAssemblies(string folder)
{
// The load context needs access to the .Net "core" assemblies...
var allAssemblies = Directory.GetFiles(RuntimeEnvironment.GetRuntimeDirectory(), "*.Client.dll").ToList();
// .. and the assemblies that I need to examine.
var assembliesToExamine = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "NuIns.CoDaq.*.Client.dll");
allAssemblies.AddRange(assembliesToExamine);
var resolver = new PathAssemblyResolver(allAssemblies);
using (var mlc = new MetadataLoadContext(resolver))
{
foreach (var assemblyFile in assembliesToExamine)
{
var assm = mlc.LoadFromAssemblyPath(assemblyFile);
if (ContainsCustomAttr(assm))
{
var assm2 = Assembly.LoadFrom(assemblyFile);
AddMimicAssemblyInfo(assm2);
}
}
}
}

Reflection not working on assembly that is loaded using Assembly.LoadFrom

I have a library that contains some reflection code which inspects an Asp.Net's primary assembly, any referenced assemblies and does cool stuff. I'm trying to get the same exact code to execute in a console application while still reflecting on an Asp.Net's assemblies and I'm seeing odd results. I've got everything wired up and the code executes, however the reflection code returns false when I know it should be returning true as I'm stepping through it in the debugger.. It's driving me nuts and I can't figure out why reflection is exhibiting different behavior when running from the console app.
Here's a perfect example of some reflection code that gets all of the types that are area registrations in an Asp.Net application (type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration))). This returns true for several types when executing in the app domain of an Asp.Net application, however it returns false for those same types when executed under the console application, but still reflecting on those same Asp.Net types.
I've also tried using the Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom method but even after writing all the code to manually resolve referenced assemblies the reflection code shown below returns false on types that it should be returning true for.
What can I try to make this work?
public static Assembly EntryAssembly { get; set; } // this is set during runtime if within the Asp.Net domain and set manually when called from the console application.
public CodeGenerator(string entryAssemblyPath = null)
{
if (entryAssemblyPath == null) // running under the Asp.Net domain
EntryAssembly = GetWebEntryAssembly(); // get the Asp.Net main assembly
else
{
// manually load the assembly into the domain via a file path
// e:\inetpub\wwwroot\myAspNetMVCApp\bin\myApp.dll
EntryAssembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(entryAssemblyPath);
}
var areas = GetAreaRegistrations(); // returns zero results under console app domain
... code ...
}
private static List<Type> GetAreaRegistrations()
{
return EntryAssembly.GetTypes().Where(type => type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration)) && type.IsPublic).ToList();
}

This has to do with the assembly context in which LoadFrom loads assemblies. Dependencies loaded during LoadFrom will not be used when resolving "regular" assemblies in the Load context.
The same appies the ReflectionOnly overloads, which load into the ReflectionOnly context.
For detailed information see https://stackoverflow.com/a/2493855/292411, and Avoid Assembly.LoadFrom; instead use Assembly.Load for an issue with LoadFrom similar to yours.
When I ran into this issue I switched to using Load and demanded "plugin" assemblies to be in the same path as the executable; I don't know if there are tricks to make things work if the assemblies are in different paths.

Ok, after a lot of debugging I've got this working! It turned out that my library project was compiling against Asp.Net MVC 4.0 even though Nuget and the properties window claimed 5.1. Nuget/MS fail again. The Asp.Net MVC application that my library is reflecting on is using MVC 5.1 so when the Assembly.LoadFrom and the AssemblyResolve event ran it was loading two versions of System.Web.Mvc.dll into the LoadFrom context (4.0 & 5.1) and this caused the IsSubclassOf() method to return false when the expected result should have been true.
The very odd error I mentioned in the comments above while debugging: The type 'System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration' exists in both 'System.Web.Mvc.dll' and 'System.Web.Mvc.dll' now makes sense, but only after the fact.
The way I finally tracked this down was by writing out all of the assemblies that AssemblyResolve was called upon to resolve and noticed that System.Web.Mvc.dll was not in the list. I fired up the Assembly Binding Log Viewer and was clearly able to see that System.Web.Mvc.dll was being loaded twice.
In retrospect, one should just skip all the custom logging and just use the Assembly Binding Log Viewer to verify only one of each assembly is being loaded and that it's the correct version your expecting.
Figuring out how to use AssemblyResolve properly was a nightmare so here is my unfinished, but working code for posterity.
public class CodeGenerator
{
public static string BaseDirectory { get; set; }
public static string BinDirectory { get; set; }
static CodeGenerator()
{
BinDirectory = "bin";
// setting this in a static constructor is best practice
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve;
}
public CodeGenerator(string entryAssemblyPath = null, string baseDirectory = null, string binDirectory = null)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(baseDirectory))
BaseDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
else
BaseDirectory = baseDirectory;
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(binDirectory) == false)
BinDirectory = binDirectory;
if (entryAssemblyPath == null) // running under the Asp.Net domain
EntryAssembly = GetWebEntryAssembly(); // get the Asp.Net main assembly
else
{
// manually load the assembly into the domain via a file path
// e:\inetpub\wwwroot\myAspNetMVCApp\bin\myApp.dll
EntryAssembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(entryAssemblyPath);
}
var areas = GetAreaRegistrations(); // reflect away!
... code ...
}
static Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
try
{
if (args == null || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(args.Name))
{
Logger.WriteLine("cannot determine assembly name!", Logger.LogType.Debug);
return null;
}
AssemblyName assemblyNameToLookFor = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
Logger.WriteLine("FullName is {0}", Logger.LogType.Debug, assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName);
// don't load the same assembly twice!
var domainAssemblies = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies();
var skipLoading = false;
foreach (var dAssembly in domainAssemblies)
{
if (dAssembly.FullName.Equals(assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName))
{
skipLoading = true;
Logger.WriteLine("skipping {0} because its already loaded into the domain", Logger.LogType.Error, assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName);
break;
}
}
if (skipLoading == false)
{
var requestedFilePath = Path.Combine(Path.Combine(BaseDirectory, BinDirectory), assemblyNameToLookFor.Name + ".dll");
Logger.WriteLine("looking for {0}...", Logger.LogType.Warning, requestedFilePath);
if (File.Exists(requestedFilePath))
{
try
{
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(requestedFilePath);
if (assembly != null)
Logger.WriteLine("loaded {0} successfully!", Logger.LogType.Success, requestedFilePath);
// todo: write an else to handle load failure and search various probe paths in a loop
return assembly;
}
catch (FileNotFoundException)
{
Logger.WriteLine("failed to load {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, requestedFilePath);
}
}
else
{
try
{
// ugh, hard-coding, but I need to get on with the real programming for now
var refedAssembliesPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86), #"Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.5.1");
requestedFilePath = Path.Combine(refedAssembliesPath, assemblyNameToLookFor.Name + ".dll");
Logger.WriteLine("looking for {0}...", Logger.LogType.Warning, requestedFilePath);
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(requestedFilePath);
if (assembly != null)
Logger.WriteLine("loaded {0} successfully!", Logger.LogType.Success, requestedFilePath);
// todo: write an else to handle load failure and search various probe paths in a loop
return assembly;
}
catch (FileNotFoundException)
{
Logger.WriteLine("failed to load {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, requestedFilePath);
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Logger.WriteLine("exception {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, e.Message);
}
return null;
}
}

Using MEF to load DLLs with embedded libraries

I am currently writing an application suite with a plugin system that loads plugins at runtime using the MEF framework.
I have currently setup one of my top level WPF applications to embed it's referenced DLLs as embedded resources and load them at runtime using the method described here.
This works fine and I get my single file WPF application that runs fine.
However, another of my top level console applications uses the MEF framework to load plugins at runtime (the WPF application is fixed and includes the plugins explicitly). My plugins have several dependencies themselves on various libraries and the extensions folder that the console application loads the plugins from is littered with all the various library dlls.
I would like to embed the dependencies of each plugin within itself so that my extensions directory contains only the top level DLL files. The method that I have used above does not cater for this approach as the plugin component cannot find the required dependency as it is only the executing assembly that is being searched for these embedded resources.
My current OnResolveAssembly method looks like this:
public static Assembly OnResolveAssembly(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
Assembly executingAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var assemblyName = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
string path = assemblyName.Name + ".dll";
if (assemblyName.CultureInfo.Equals(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) == false)
{
path = String.Format(#"{0}\{1}", assemblyName.CultureInfo, path);
}
using (Stream stream = executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(path))
{
if (stream == null)
return null;
var assemblyRawBytes = new byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(assemblyRawBytes, 0, assemblyRawBytes.Length);
return Assembly.Load(assemblyRawBytes);
}
}
I'm thinking that the best way to proceed would be to add in functionality to keep track of all assemblies loaded in a list and once a new assembly has been loaded in this way, recursively do the same; load any embedded DLLs within those as you go. You can then add these DLLs to the list which will act as a cache.
Is there perhaps a better way to proceed with this?

I have implemented a very similar solution to yours and it works very fine for me. As you can see I keep track of already loaded assemblies in a _references dictionary.
In my case, I do not need to "eagerly" load all embedded dependencies in any recursive way, but rather my embedded assemblies do register themselves with the application host on-demand.
public static class ApplicationHost
{
private static readonly Dictionary<string, Assembly> _references = new Dictionary<string, Assembly>();
[STAThread]
private static void Main()
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) => _references.ContainsKey(args.Name) ? _references[args.Name] : null;
RegisterAssemblyAndEmbeddedDependencies();
// continue application bootstrapping...
}
public static void RegisterAssemblyAndEmbeddedDependencies()
{
var assembly = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly();
_references[assembly.FullName] = assembly;
foreach (var resourceName in assembly.GetManifestResourceNames())
{
using (var resourceStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
{
var rawAssembly = new byte[resourceStream.Length];
resourceStream.Read(rawAssembly, 0, rawAssembly.Length);
var reference = Assembly.Load(rawAssembly);
_references[reference.FullName] = reference;
}
}
}
}

Change .dll in runtime

I have a huge application where one project of my solution makes reports.
I want to add new report (update report) without building my project, just add .dll files. I read about Assembly and
AppDomain, but I don't know is it really good way to add new dll for new report and how to update old report in runtime?
Here's my example, it takes my first dll, but second time it doesn't. First dll - sum, second - deducted.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
//first domain
AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain");
AssemblyDll asb1 = new AssemblyDll();
Console.WriteLine(asb1.AssemblyMethod(1));
AppDomain.Unload(domain);
Console.ReadKey();
//second domain
AppDomain newDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("myNewDomain");
AssemblyDll asb2 = new AssemblyDll();
Console.WriteLine(asb2.AssemblyMethod(2));
AppDomain.Unload(newDomain);
Console.ReadKey();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
}
public class AssemblyDll
{
public string AssemblyMethod(int version)
{
//loading .dll
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(#"../../../../Assembly/DynamicDLL" + version + ".dll");
Type type = assembly.GetType("DynamicDLL.Dynamic");
object instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
MethodInfo[] methods = type.GetMethods();
//invoke method
object result = methods[0].Invoke(instance, new object[] { 5, 3 });
return result.ToString();
}
}
My .dll file comes from:
namespace DynamicDLL
{
public class Dynamic
{
public int DynamicMethod(int a, int b)
{
return a + b;
//return a - b;
}
}
}

If you want to write something like plugins and like the plugin approach, you should take a look at MEF http://msdn.microsoft.com/en/library/vstudio/dd460648.aspx
MEF allows you to use any assembly dynamically and even drop dlls into a folder and build a MEF catalog out of it.
Actually Visual Studio and uses MEF internally for extensiblility (Plugins...)

Assemblies are generally loaded into an AppDomain once and you cannot unload them once loaded.
You can create a new AppDomain and load your assemblies into this and when you release this the assemblies will be unloaded. However the caveat here is you cannot directly communicate between two AppDomain you have to marshal between the two using some other method like remoting.
There's been much wrote on this in terms of plugins and making plugins unloadable, a quick Google search presented these:
http://www.brad-smith.info/blog/archives/500
http://adrianvintu.com/blogengine/post/Unloadable-plugins.aspx
Hopefully these will aid you.

Effect of LoaderOptimizationAttribute

I have written a small piece of code regarding the dynamic loading of assemblies and creating class instances from those assemblies, including an executable, a test lib to be dynamically loaded and a loader library to load dynamic assembly into a new Appdomain. Loader library is referenced by both executable and the dynamic library.
//executable
[System.STAThreadAttribute()]
[System.LoaderOptimization(LoaderOptimization.MultiDomain)]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AppDomainSetup domainSetup = new AppDomainSetup()
{
ApplicationBase = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase,
ConfigurationFile = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile,
ApplicationName = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationName,
LoaderOptimization = LoaderOptimization.MultiDomain
};
AppDomain childDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", null, domainSetup);
Console.WriteLine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.LoaderOptimization.ToString());
Console.WriteLine(childDomain.SetupInformation.LoaderOptimization.ToString());
byte[] assembly = null;
string assemblyName = "CSTestLib";
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(assemblyName+".dll",FileMode.Open))
{
byte[] byt = new byte[fs.Length];
fs.Read(byt,0,(int)fs.Length);
assembly = byt;
}
object[] pararmeters = {assemblyName,assembly};
string LoaderAssemblyName = typeof(AssemblyLoader).Assembly.FullName;
string LoaderClassName = typeof(AssemblyLoader).FullName;
AssemblyLoader assloader = (AssemblyLoader)childDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(LoaderAssemblyName,LoaderClassName , true, BindingFlags.CreateInstance, null, parameters, null, null);
object obj = assloader.Load("CSTestLib.Class1");
object obj2 = assloader.Load("CSTestLib.Class2");
AppDomain.Unload(childDomain);
Console.ReadKey();
}
//Dynamic Lib
using System;
namespace CSTestLib
{
public class Class1 :MarshalByRefObject
{
public Class1() { }
}
public class Class2 : MarshalByRefObject
{
public Class2() { }
}
}
//Loader Library
using System;
namespace LoaderLibrary
{
public class AssemblyLoader : MarshalByRefObject
{
string assemblyName;
public AssemblyLoader(string assName, byte[] ass)
{
assemblyName = assName;
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Load(ass);
Console.WriteLine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName + " " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.LoaderOptimization.ToString());
}
public object Load(string className)
{
object ret = null;
try
{
ret = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(assemblyName, className);
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
return ret;
}
}
}
Here I set LoaderOptimizationAttribute on main() method but AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.LoaderOptimization.ToString(); says it is NotSpecified Why?
The differences between MultiDomain and MultiDomainHost is not so clear to me. Is MultiDomainHost for only GAC assemblies? For my situation which is more suitable?
According to this
JIT-compiled code cannot be shared for
assemblies loaded into the load-from
context, using the LoadFrom method of
the Assembly class, or loaded from
images using overloads of the Load
method that specify byte arrays.
So how can I detect if an assembly is loaded domain-neutral or not? How can assure I it is loaded domain-neutral?

This attribute has only an effect if you precompile your assemblies with NGen to speed up a warm start of your application. When you specify MultiDomain or MultiDomainHost you enable the usage of precompiled (ngenned) assemblies. You can verify this with Process Explorer where you can look at the list of loaded modules.
This is one of the biggest startup time savers if your application consists of several executable instances which share assemblies. This enables .NET to share the code pages between processes which in turn saves real memory (one assembly exists only once in the physical memory but it is shared between one or more processes) and prevents JITing the same code over and over again in each process which takes time at the cost that the generated code is a little less efficient as it could be when it would be compiled with the regular JIT which can use more dynamic data to generate the most efficient code.
In your example you load the assembly into a byte array which is located in the managed heap and increases your private byte count. This makes it impossible to share data between processes. Only read only pages which have a counterpart on your hard disc can be shared between processes. This is the reason why the attribute has no effect. If you are after a factor 2 of warm startup performance this is the attribute you were seeking for. For anything else it is not relevant.
Now back to your original question:
It is set but when you start your application under a debugger this MultiDomain attribute is ignored. When you start it outside of a debugger you will get the expected results.
Yes MultiDomainHost does enable AppDomain neutrality only for signed assemblies all others are not shared.
Code sharing can only happen when it is precompiled. The real question is: How to check if the assembly is precompiled? I do it with Process Explorer by looking at the list of loaded modules. When my loaded assembly shows up with a path to the Native Image cache and an .ni extension I am sure the precompiled image is beeing used. You can check this also with fuslogvw when you set the radio button to Native Images to check why a native images was not used by the runtime.