what is GAC and its uses

Question

Shivanand Arur · Answer

Whenever we create a web application or an application in .Net various assemblies are created. An assembly can be a .dll file or a .exe file. Basically .Net provides 2 types of assemblies (Private and Public/Shared). A private assembly is an assembly which is stored is the application's directory or a sub-directory. This assembly is used for that specific application only. As the name says it is a private assembly It cannot be shared with any other application. Public Assembly - Suppose tomorrow you create an application and you have many functions which can be used in this application and other apps you might create. In that case you should create a class with those functions which can be used in multiple apps and just compile it. The file that is created is a file with .dll extension this assembly can be added in the GAC using the Visual Studio Command Prompt and write the command gacutil /i Name of the assembly you created (eg: gacutil /i CSharpCorner.dll ) where CSharpCorner.dll is your assembly name. NOTE : Adding an assembly to GAC is not as simple as adding an assembly to a simple web application. There are various steps that has to be strictly followed since you are adding an assembly to a place where multiple apps will use this assembly. You have to create a strong name of the assembly you created. These are various links which will help you understand about GAC and how to add your assembly to GAC. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yf1d93sz(v=VS.71).aspx // About GAC http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wd40t7ad(v=vs.71) // About Strongly Named Assembly General Links http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dkkx7f79.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6axd4fx6 http://www.dotnetspider.com/forum/157374-how-put-assembly-GAC.aspx http://www.dotnetspark.com/Forum/738-where-is-gac-location-windows.aspx http://www.dotnetfunda.com/interview/exam4404-what-are-the-different-types-of-assemblies-in-net.aspx Hope this helps you. Thanks

nallya · Answer

GAC(global assembely cache) is a a shared area in which All shared assembelies in .net resides. shared assembely is nothing but assembely can be used in no. of application. but to make assembely shared it should be strongely named to avoid conflict for this tool sn.exe can be used.