The issue is that when you install an assembly into the GAC, no record
is made anywhere (that I know of) as to where the assembly originally
came from. In fact, the original dll need not exist anymore (can be
deleted, or as in the case of assemblies installed into the gac from
removable media such as CDs).
The CodeBase and Location properties are only different when the
assembly resolver arrives at a decision to download an assembly from
off-host (such as in a smart client or whenever codeBase redirects are
used in configuration files). In this situation, the assembly resolver
identifies the "CodeBase" from whence a DLL should be loaded as being X,
and then, if the CodeBase is off-host, downloads the bits for the
assembly to the temporary download cache in the local file system
("Location"). In these situations, you can inspect either the CodeBase
or Location properties for a given assembly depending on what you're
trying to determine (where it originally came from versus where it's
sitting in the local file system right now).
But for assemblies installed in the GAC, no record is kept of the
original where-it-was-at-the-time-it-was-installed location. So as for
what support the runtime might already have built-in, you're out of luck
if that's what you need to know and will have to pursue rollowing your
own solution (ex: a custom GAC installer that records the original
installed-from location in some location to be consulted later; like a
config file, the registry, etc.
-Mike
DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/woodring
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Moderated discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
> James Crowley
> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 9:43 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Original CodeBase from GAC assembly
>
>
> Try
>
> Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location
>
> Instead. According to msdn docs this is
>
> ~~
> The location of the loaded file that contains the manifest.
> If the loaded
> file was shadow-copied, the Location is that of the file before being
> shadow-copied.
> ~~
>
> Alternatively,
>
> System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(whatever)).CodeBase;
>
> Should work.
>
> ~ James Crowley
>
