Ildasm.exe (MSIL Disassembler)
Updated: April 2011
The MSIL Disassembler is a companion tool to the MSIL Assembler (Ilasm.exe). Ildasm.exe takes a portable executable (PE) file that contains Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code and creates a text file suitable as input to Ilasm.exe.
This tool is automatically installed with Visual Studio and with the Windows SDK. To run the tool, we recommend that you use the Visual Studio Command Prompt or the Windows SDK Command Prompt (CMD Shell). These utilities enable you to run the tool easily, without navigating to the installation folder. For more information, see Visual Studio and Windows SDK Command Prompts.
If you have Visual Studio installed on your computer: On the taskbar, click Start, click All Programs, click Visual Studio, click Visual Studio Tools, and then click Visual Studio Command Prompt.
-or-
If you have the Windows SDK installed on your computer: On the taskbar, click Start, click All Programs, click the folder for the Windows SDK, and then click Command Prompt (or CMD Shell).
At the command prompt, type the following:
ildasm [options] [PEfilename] [options]
Parameters
The following options are available for .exe, .dll, .obj, and .lib files.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
/out=filename |
Creates an output file with the specified filename, rather than displaying the results in a graphical user interface. |
/rtf |
Produces output in rich text format. Invalid with the /text option. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/text |
Displays the results to the console window, rather than in a graphical user interface or as an output file. |
/html |
Produces output in HTML format. Valid with the /output option only. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/? |
Displays the command syntax and options for the tool. |
The following additional options are available for .exe and .dll files.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
/bytes |
Shows actual bytes, in hexadecimal format, as instruction comments. |
/caverbal |
Produces custom attribute blobs in verbal form. The default is binary form. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/linenum |
Includes references to original source lines. |
/nobar |
Suppresses the disassembly progress indicator pop-up window. |
/noca |
Suppresses the output of custom attributes. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/pubonly |
Disassembles only public types and members. Equivalent to /visibility:PUB. |
/quoteallnames |
Includes all names in single quotes. |
/raweh |
Shows exception handling clauses in raw form. |
/source |
Shows original source lines as comments. |
/tokens |
Shows metadata tokens of classes and members. |
/visibility:vis[+vis...] |
Disassembles only types or members with the specified visibility. The following are valid values for vis: PUB — Public PRI — Private FAM — Family ASM — Assembly FAA — Family and Assembly FOA — Family or Assembly PSC — Private Scope For definitions of these visibility modifiers, see MethodAttributes and TypeAttributes. |
The following options are valid for .exe and .dll files for file or console output only.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
/all |
Specifies a combination of the /header, /bytes, /stats, /classlist, and /tokens options. Note In the .NET Framework versions 1.0 and 1.1, specifies a combination of the /header, /bytes, and /tokens options. |
/classlist |
Includes a list of classes defined in the module. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/forward |
Uses forward class declaration. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/headers |
Includes file header information in the output. |
/item:class[::member[(sig]] |
Disassembles the following depending upon the argument supplied:
|
/noil |
Suppresses MSIL assembly code output. |
/stats |
Includes statistics on the image. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/typelist |
Produces the full list of types, to preserve type ordering in a round trip. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
/unicode |
Uses Unicode encoding for the output. |
/utf8 |
Uses UTF-8 encoding for the output. ANSI is the default. |
The following options are valid for .exe, .dll, .obj, and .lib files for file or console output only.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
/metadata[=specifier] |
Shows metadata, where specifier is: MDHEADER — Show the metadata header information and sizes. HEX — Show information in hex as well as in words. CSV — Show the record counts and heap sizes. UNREX — Show unresolved externals. SCHEMA — Show the metadata header and schema information. RAW — Show the raw metadata tables. HEAPS — Show the raw heaps. VALIDATE — Validate the consistency of the metadata. You can specify /metadata multiple times, with different values for specifier. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
The following options are valid for .lib files for file or console output only.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
/objectfile=filename |
Shows the metadata of a single object file in the specified library. New in the .NET Framework version 2.0. |
Note
All options for Ildasm.exe are case-insensitive and recognized by the first three letters. For example, /quo is equivalent to /quoteallnames. Options that specify arguments accept either a colon (:) or an equal sign (=) as the separator between the option and the argument. For example, /output:filename is equivalent to /output=filename.
Remarks
Ildasm.exe only operates on PE files on disk. It does not operate on files installed in the global assembly cache.
The text file produced by Ildasm.exe can be used as input to the MSIL Assembler (Ilasm.exe). This is useful, for example, when compiling code in a programming language that does not support all the runtime metadata attributes. After compiling the code and running its output through Ildasm.exe, the resulting MSIL text file can be hand-edited to add the missing attributes. You can then run this text file through the MSIL Assembler to produce a final executable file.
Note
Currently, you cannot use this technique with PE files that contain embedded native code (for example, PE files produced by Visual C++).
You can use the default GUI in the MSIL Disassembler to view the metadata and disassembled code of any existing PE file in a hierarchical tree view. To use the GUI, type ildasm at the command line without supplying the PEfilename argument or any options. From the File menu, you can navigate to the PE file that you want to load into Ildasm.exe. To save the metadata and disassembled code displayed for the selected PE, select the Dump command from the File menu. To save the hierarchical tree view only, select the Dump Treeview command from the File menu. For a detailed guide to loading a file into Ildasm.exe and interpreting the output, see the Ildasm.exe Tutorial, located in the Samples folder that ships with the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK).
If you provide Ildasm.exe with a PEfilename argument that contains embedded resources, the tool produces multiple output files: a text file that contains MSIL code and, for each embedded managed resource, a .resources file produced using the resource's name from metadata. If an unmanaged resource is embedded in PEfilename, a .res file is produced using the filename specified for MSIL output by the /output option*.*
Note
Ildasm.exe shows only metadata descriptions for .obj and .lib input files. MSIL code for these file types is not disassembled.
You can run Ildasm.exe over an.exe or .dll file to determine whether the file is managed. If the file is not managed, the tool displays a message stating that the file has no valid common language runtime header and cannot be disassembled. If the file is managed, the tool runs successfully.
Examples
The following command causes the metadata and disassembled code for the PE file MyHello.exe to display in the Ildasm.exe default GUI.
ildasm myHello.exe
The following command disassembles the file MyFile.exe and stores the resulting MSIL Assembler text in the file MyFile.il.
ildasm MyFile.exe /output:MyFile.il
The following command disassembles the file MyFile.exe and displays the resulting MSIL Assembler text to the console window.
ildasm MyFile.exe /text
If the file MyApp.exe contains embedded managed and unmanaged resources, the following command produces four files: MyApp.il, MyApp.res, Icons.resources, and Message.resources:
ildasm MyApp.exe /output:MyApp.il
The following command disassembles the method MyMethod within the class MyClass in MyFile.exe and displays the output to the console window.
ildasm /item:MyClass::MyMethod MyFile.exe /text
In the previous example, there could be several methods named MyMethod with different signatures. The following command disassembles the instance method MyMethod with the return type of void and the parameter types int32 and string.
ildasm /item:"MyClass::MyMethod(instance void(int32,string)" MyFile.exe /text
Note
In the .NET Framework versions 1.0 and 1.1, the left parenthesis that follows the method name must be balanced by a right parenthesis after the signature: MyMethod(instance void(int32)). In the .NET Framework version 2.0 the closing parenthesis must be omitted: MyMethod(instance void(int32).
To retrieve a static method (Shared method in Visual Basic), omit the keyword instance. Class types that are not primitive types like int32 and string must include the namespace and must be preceded by the keyword class. External types must be preceded by the library name in square brackets. The following command disassembles a static method named MyMethod that has one parameter of type AppDomain and has a return type of AppDomain.
ildasm /item:"MyClass::MyMethod(class [mscorlib]System.AppDomain(class [mscorlib]System.AppDomain)" MyFile.exe /text
A nested type must be preceded by its containing class, delimited by a forward slash. For example, if the MyNamespace.MyClass class contains a nested class named NestedClass, the nested class is identified as follows: class MyNamespace.MyClass/NestedClass.
See Also
Reference
Visual Studio and Windows SDK Command Prompts
Concepts
Other Resources
Change History
Date |
History |
Reason |
|---|---|---|
|
April 2011 |
Added information about using the Visual Studio and Windows SDK Command Prompts. |
Information enhancement. |