Newer version assembly reference issue

Balaji R

Hi,

I've debugged an assembly version 1.0.0.1 in .NET reflector VS Add-in. After this i've found the same assembly regenerated in the following %programdata% folder, "C:ProgramDataRed Gate.NET ReflectorDevPath".

My problem here is, when i refer the newer version (3.0.0.3) of the same assembly in an executable application(.exe) and while running the exe file, only the older version from the above path only got referred instead of my newer version and my source changes in the newer version doesn't working. But when i removed the older assembly version 1.0.0.1 from the above path, my newer assembly works fine when running the .exe.

Could you please tell, is this the default behaviour or any reasons why the older version from %programdata% folder always referring irrespective of the reference to the newer version ?

Also could you tell is there any ways to refer my newer assembly, irrespective of the older version present in %programdata% folder ?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Balaji

Jessica R

Hi Balaji,

Thanks for your post!

Regarding this issue, some assemblies require a debugging signature to be added to them before they can be debugged. When you enable debugging on one of these, .NET Reflector has to create a new version of the assembly to add the signature. To do this, it places the new version in the DEVPATH location, sets a DEVPATH environment variable to that location, and changes some config files that will instruct the CLR to always load the copy of assemblies found in the DEVPATH location (regardless of the version number).

To stop this behavior now that you're done debugging with the older version, you'll just need to reset the DEVPATH - you can do this from the VS menu, .NET Reflector >Reset the DEVPATH - and that will let your application load the newer assembly.

I hope this info helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.