Question

Aloha

Given a plug-in architecture (C# / .NET 3.5) with the plug-ins stored in the GAC, how can I list/load all dll’s that contain types that implement my specific interface? In other words, I’d like to investigate which plug-ins for my application are installed on a machine, by looking in the GAC.

-Edoode

Answer 1

First a little clarification: a DLL cannot implement an interface. The DLL contains types that could implement a specific interface. Here’s a .NET wrapper around fusion.dll that allows you to enumerate all the assemblies in the GAC. Once you have loaded the assembly with Assembly.Load you can try to find all the types that implement the specific interface:

foreach (var type in assembly.GetTypes()) {     var myInterfaceType = typeof(IMyInterface);     if (type != myInterfaceType && myInterfaceType.IsAssignableFrom(type))     {         Console.WriteLine('{0} implements IMyInterface', type);     } }