Methods to programmatically install a .NET assembly into the GAC

Question

I need to create a small app or script to install a .NET assembly into the GAC. I\'ve read there are a couple ways to do this including:

• using gacutil.e

Answer 1

We recently had to do this for 10s of servers in an enterprise environment. We used Wix to build a very simple MSI (seriously - 5 minutes work) and published to all server (and dev boxes) through Group Policy.

Answer 2

I strongly recommend using existing methods (like the ones you mentioned) because they are both supported and maintained by Microsoft and will continue to work with future releases.

A quick look at gacutil.exe with Process Monitor reveals that there is a little bit more to it than just copying files:

• concurrency concerns (e.g. temporary files, locking WINDOWS\assembly\GACLock.dat, etc.)
• notifications (e.g. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\GACChangeNotification\...)
• indexing (e.g. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\NativeImagesIndex...)
• validation (e.g. strong name, ...)

The wrapper in System.EnterpriseServices is very similar to this old blog post and should work just fine.