Hi,

Some quick background: Most of my experience with CGI has been with
Perl. We'd write perl scripts that shared custom modules where we'd put
all of our utility functions and OO code that could be re-used across
scripts. If we wanted to update a function in a module, we just updated
the module, and all scripts across the site instantly saw the changes.
No restarting IIS necessary.

With .net, I am trying to figure out how to best accomplish the same
type of thing. So far I am running into nothing but brick walls.

We have some class library assemblies (DLLs) we've written in .net,
which we want to be able to use from any asp.net program on our
webserver.

First thing I noticed is our asp.net programs default to making a copy
of these modules into their own folders. This destroys the reasoning
behind these modules -- we want any changes to the modules to be
reflected instantly across the server.

So then I looked into installing these modules as shared assemblies in
the GAC. But that requires you run the gacutil to update the GAC
whenever you make any changes. In our environment, we make many changes
a week to code, and having to run gacutil to freshen the cache every
time is tedious. But it is my understanding that even if we did do
that, we'd still have to restart IIS for the changes to be picked up by
the scripts. Apparantly .net only detects changed files if they are
private assemblies being used, not shared.

So next I looked into adding some configuration changes to the
<runtime> area of machine.config. For example,

<runtime>
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Our.Common" publicKeyToken="ae7d1e231700e31b"
/>
<codeBase version="1.0.0.0"
href="file:///D:\OurClassLibrary\Our.Common.DLL" />
</dependentAssembly>
</assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

Now, this basically works. It is like sharing an assembly in the GAC,
with the advantage that we can just upload the latest file to our
D:\OurClassLibrary folder.

However, in reality, it still has two problems:

1. Apparantly IIS locks the DLLs in that directory when it first loads
them, so you have to stop IIS to upload the latest changes!

2. Even if you didn't have the locking problem, you'd still have to
restart IIS for your .net apps to see the changes -- same as with the
GAC.

This seems completely insane to me. We can't be the only ones trying to
share our code across our web applications, and needing to make changes
frequently.

How does everyone else handle this problem?

Thanks!