Difference between LoadFile and LoadFrom with .NET Assemblies?

by

Does this clear it up?

// path1 and path2 point to different copies of the same assembly on disk:

Assembly assembly1 = Assembly.LoadFrom(path1);
Assembly assembly2 = Assembly.LoadFrom(path2);

// These both point to the assembly from path1, so this is true
Console.WriteLine(assembly1.CodeBase == assembly2.CodeBase);

assembly1 = Assembly.LoadFile(path1);
assembly2 = Assembly.LoadFile(path2);

// These point to different assemblies now, so this is false
Console.WriteLine(assembly1.CodeBase == assembly2.CodeBase);

Edit: to answer the questions you raised in your revised question, you definitely want to read Suzanne Cook on Assembly Identity.

There are a lot of rules that govern how assemblies are loaded, and some of them have to do with how they resolve dependencies – if your AssemblyA is dependent on AssemblyB, where should .NET look to find AssemblyB? In the Global Assembly Cache, the same directory it found AssemblyA, or somewhere else entirely? Furthermore, if it finds multiple copies of that assembly, how should it choose which one to use?

LoadFrom has one set of rules, while LoadFile has another set of rules. It is hard to imagine many reasons to use LoadFile, but if you needed to use reflection on different copies of the same assembly, it’s there for you.

More Related Contents:

  1. How to add folder to assembly search path at runtime in .NET?
  2. How can I determine if a .NET assembly was built for x86 or x64?
  3. What are differences between AssemblyVersion, AssemblyFileVersion and AssemblyInformationalVersion?
  4. How do you loop through currently loaded assemblies?
  5. When should I deploy my assemblies into the GAC?
  6. C# compiling for 32/64 bit, or for ‘Any CPU’? [duplicate]
  7. How did Microsoft create assemblies that have circular references?
  8. .Net: Running code when assembly is loaded
  9. How to load a .NET assembly for reflection operations and subsequently unload it?
  10. How to use Assembly Binding Redirection to ignore revision and build numbers
  11. How to extract an assembly from the GAC?
  12. mscorlib.dll & System.dll
  13. How do I merge multiple .net assemblies into a single assembly?
  14. Determine framework (CLR) version of assembly
  15. Does .NET assembly size affect performance?
  16. How do I get the version of an assembly without loading it?
  17. Can strong naming an assembly be used to verify the assembly author?
  18. How to read assembly attributes
  19. using ILMerge with .NET 4 libraries
  20. Determine whether .NET assemblies were built from the same source
  21. .NET Assembly Diff / Compare Tool – What’s available? [closed]
  22. ControlTemplate for existing controls in WPF
  23. How to force a Solution file (SLN) to be opened in Visual Studio 2013?
  24. What problem does IStructuralEquatable and IStructuralComparable solve?
  25. Custom app.config Config Section Handler
  26. Referencing Google’s V8 engine from a .NET app
  27. Windows 7 .net Excel .SaveAs() Error Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC
  28. “The calling thread must be STA, because many UI components require this” error when creating a WPF pop-up Window in thread
  29. Get a list of groups that Azure AD user belongs to in claims
  30. Is it safe to call an RCW from a finalizer?

Leave a Comment