What happens to a native DLL when placed in the Bin folder of an ASP.NET application?

Question

I'd like to know what happens when a native (read: non-.NET) DLL is placed within the Bin folder of an ASP.NET application. Specifically I have ~two questions (I won't bog down these straight forward questions with the specifics of my situation):

Does ASP.NET store the DLL's in memory? Is this why a) I can't delete the files and b) changing permissions on the files doesn't affect ASP.NET's ability to read them?

Also, is it possible for a native DLL in one ASP.NET application bin folder to affect a completely different ASP.NET application? Because that certainly seems to be happening with two of my applications. Is a native DLL a resource that is subsequently used by the ASP.NET client in any context?

Answer 1

for me, if the CLR comes across a non-net dll in the bin folder, it will try to load it and not be able to, and the compiler will show you the YSOD.

if you are having trouble deleting the dlls, i would suggest iisreset - works for me when i come across files i can't delete.

Answer 2

1. You won't be able to delete any files in the Bin folder of your app until you stop IIS.
2. Your other app may be dying because it's sharing an AppPool with the application that's loading the "bad" DLL; this may in turn be killing (read shutting down) the AppPool . Make sure each site is running on a different pool and you shouldn't seen any problems on the other site.