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.exe executing the following line of code:
new System.EnterpriseServices.Internal.Publish().GACInstall("Foo.dll");
However, what would happen if I just created the appropriate directories on the machine and copied the assembly into that directory? The structure of the GAC directory is the following: C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Foo\<version#>__<public token>\Foo.dll
Do the above two methods do anything special besides creating the folder structure and placing the assembly into it?
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.
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.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1460793/methods-to-programmatically-install-a-net-assembly-into-the-gac