Patching problem
 

The problem: I have an executable and mylib.dll (C# class library) in the same directory. I have a subdirectory "Patch" in that directory containing another version of that mylib.dll. I need to make a sample application somehow that loads the first dll, than frees it (like LoadLibrary and FreeLibrary in Windows API, but here I use Domain.Load, Domain.Unload), and then loads another version of that dll from "Patch" folder.
Problems:
1) when I try to load the library from "Patch" directory, the library from the application directory is loaded (even if I add some other paths to domain),
2) if I rename "Patch\mylib.dll" to "Patch\mylib1.dll" and try to load the second, renamed one, it is anyway resolved to its original name and again - assembly from mylib.dll in application directory is loaded,
3) if I unload (free) mylib.dll, delete it from my computer, move "Patch\mylib.dll" to "mylib.dll", load it....... I anyway get the original dll that I deleted... it seems like there is hash,
4) changing "patched" dll version doesn't help - I anyway get the original dll if I loaded it once.
Help me! I'm a novice in these things. How could work with dynamic labraries that was so simple in Windows API become so terribly complicated here, in .NET???
What do I do wrong? How can I free the library and load the new, changed one, but with the same name?

Re: Patching problem
 

That sounds odd. Normally if its a newer version the .net framework will pick up the fact the versions changed and the cached version is updated.

Re: Patching problem
 

Simple code... maybe, something wrong here...:S

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Reflection;

using System.IO;



namespace PatchedApp

{

    class Program

    {

        public static void LoadInvoke(string path)

        {

            AppDomain sandbox = AppDomain.CreateDomain("Sandbox");

            try

            {

                AssemblyName an = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path);

                Assembly a = sandbox.Load(an);

                Type[] mytypes = a.GetTypes();

                BindingFlags flags = (BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Public |

                    BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly);



                Console.WriteLine(an.Version.ToString());



                foreach (Type t in mytypes)

                {

                    MethodInfo[] mi = t.GetMethods(flags);

                    Object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(t);



                    foreach (MethodInfo m in mi)

                    {

                        m.Invoke(obj, null);

                    }

                }

            }

            catch (Exception ex)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());

            }

            finally

            {

                AppDomain.Unload(sandbox);

            }

        }



        public static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string file = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\PatchedLib.dll";

            string patch = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\PatchedLib1.dll";

            string temp = "C:\\_PatchedLib.dll";



            LoadInvoke(file);



            File.Move(file, temp);

            File.Copy(patch, file);

            LoadInvoke(file);



            File.Delete(file);

            File.Move(temp, file);



            Console.ReadKey();

        }

    }

}

Re: Patching problem
 

Well, anyway I found the solution to my problem at last:
http://adrianvintu.com/blogengine/po...e-plugins.aspx