Devin Rader's Blog
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Read assembly metadata without loading the assembly

Friday, January 07, 2005 8:50 PM

Ever wanted to read an assemblies metadata without actually loading the assembly, either because it was not performant enough, or the assembly was missing a reference.

Here is a little utilitiy that I wrote that will enumerate through all of an assemblies references without loading any of the actual assemblies.  It uses the Unmanaged MetaData API to read the meta data.  We use it to help us debug manifest definition mismathc problems.

http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/AssemblyMetaDataReader

Of course the ability to examine metadata without loading the assembly exists in the .NET 2.0 Framework

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/e2s44xz6.aspx


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# re: Read assembly metadata without loading the assembly

Hi Devin,

Is it possible to ask for some information on how to use the metadata api? or maybe if it's not imposing too much to ask for your source code for the AssemblyMetaDataReader. We need a similar functionality for querying the types in an assembly without loading it and you would be a great help if you could point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance and more power.

6/19/2007 10:13 PM | Raist

# re: Read assembly metadata without loading the assembly

Hello Devin,

the link to the "AssemblyMetaDataReader" on dotdotnet.com doesn't work any more, and the content was obviosly not migrated to the new CodeGallery portal :( Could you please update the link or send me the binaries?

Tank you in advance. 9/17/2008 7:09 PM | Alex

# re: Read assembly metadata without loading the assembly

please share the AssemblyMetaDataReader 10/9/2008 11:26 PM | sandeep

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