how to load all assemblies from within your /bin directory

Question

In a web application, I want to load all assemblies in the /bin directory.

Since this can be installed anywhere in the file system, I can't gaurantee a specific path where it is stored.

I want a List<> of Assembly assembly objects.

Answer 1

To get the bin directory, string path = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location; does NOT always work (especially when the executing assembly has been placed in an ASP.NET temporary directory).

Instead, you should use string binPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "bin");

Further, you should probably take the FileLoadException and BadImageFormatException into consideration.

Here is my working function:

public static void LoadAllBinDirectoryAssemblies()
{
    string binPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "bin"); // note: don't use CurrentEntryAssembly or anything like that.

    foreach (string dll in Directory.GetFiles(binPath, "*.dll", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
    {
    try
    {                    
        Assembly loadedAssembly = Assembly.LoadFile(dll);
    }
    catch (FileLoadException loadEx)
    { } // The Assembly has already been loaded.
    catch (BadImageFormatException imgEx)
    { } // If a BadImageFormatException exception is thrown, the file is not an assembly.

    } // foreach dll
}

Answer 2

Well, you can hack this together yourself with the following methods, initially use something like:

string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

to get the path to your current assembly. Next, iterate over all DLL's in the path using the Directory.GetFiles method with a suitable filter. Your final code should look like:

List<Assembly> allAssemblies = new List<Assembly>();
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

foreach (string dll in Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.dll"))
    allAssemblies.Add(Assembly.LoadFile(dll));

Please note that I haven't tested this so you may need to check that dll actually contains the full path (and concatenate path if it doesn't)

Answer 3

You can do it like this, but you should probably not load everything into the current appdomain like this, since assemblies might contain harmful code.

public IEnumerable<Assembly> LoadAssemblies()
{
    DirectoryInfo directory = new DirectoryInfo(@"c:\mybinfolder");
    FileInfo[] files = directory.GetFiles("*.dll", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);

    foreach (FileInfo file in files)
    {
        // Load the file into the application domain.
        AssemblyName assemblyName = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(file.FullName);
        Assembly assembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Load(assemblyName);
        yield return assembly;
    } 

    yield break;
}

EDIT: I have not tested the code (no access to Visual Studio at this computer), but I hope that you get the idea.

Answer 4

I know this is a old question but...

System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()