Where and how is the _ViewStart.cshtml layout file linked?

Question

Here\'s the About.cshtml from the default MVC 3 template:

@{
    ViewBag.Title = \"About Us\";
}

About

     Put content here.         


        

Answer 1

This may add some addt'l info to this question now (2016 ala MVC4, MVC5).

The Razor engine finds and runs the code in _ViewStart.cshtml before any other code which is in the same directory or subdirectory where the _ViewStart.cshtml is found.

Any view can override the Layout property or any of its values.

Just thought I might add a bit more info to show you why it is _ViewStart.

If you get ILSpy and examine the code in the RazorViewEngine (System.Web.Mvc.dll ) you will see that the code itself references that name.

You can see that the RazorViewEngine looks for a file with that name:

RazorViewEngine.ViewStartFileName = "_ViewStart";