Programming with Assemblies

Assemblies are the building blocks of the .NET Framework; they form the fundamental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and security permissions. An assembly provides the common language runtime with the information it needs to be aware of type implementations. It is a collection of types and resources that are built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. To the runtime, a type does not exist outside the context of an assembly.

This section describes how to create modules, create assemblies from modules, create a key pair and sign an assembly with a strong name, and install an assembly into the global assembly cache. In addition, this section describes how to use the MSIL Disassembler (Ildasm.exe) to view assembly manifest information.

In This Section

• Creating Assemblies
  Provides an overview of single-file and multifile assemblies.
• Assembly Names
  Provides an overview of assembly naming.
• Assembly Location
  Provides an overview of where to locate assemblies.
• Building a Single-File Assembly
  Describes how to create a single-file assembly.
• Building a Multifile Assembly
  Describes how to create a multifile assembly.
• Setting Assembly Attributes
  Describes assembly attributes and how to set them.
• Creating and Using Strong-Named Assemblies
  Describes how and why you sign an assembly with a strong name.
• Delay Signing an Assembly
  Describes how to delay sign an assembly.
• Working with Assemblies and the Global Assembly Cache
  Describes how and why you add assemblies to the global assembly cache.
• Viewing Assembly Contents
  Describes how to use the MSIL Disassembler (Ildasm.exe) to view assembly contents.

Related Sections

• Obtaining Information from an Assembly
  Describes how to programmatically obtain type and other information from an assembly.
• Assemblies
  Provides a conceptual overview of common language runtime assemblies.
• How the Runtime Locates Assemblies
  Describes how the runtime determines which assembly to use to fulfill a binding request.
• Reflection Overview
  Describes how to use the Reflection class to obtain information about an assembly.