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.netassembliesversions

How do I get the version of an assembly without loading it?

One small function of a large program examines assemblies in a folder and replaces out-of-date assemblies with the latest versions. To accomplish this, it needs to read the version numbers of the existing assembly files without actually loading those assemblies into the executing process.

Solution

  • I found the following in this article.

    using System.Reflection;
using System.IO;

...

// Get current and updated assemblies
AssemblyName currentAssemblyName = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(currentAssemblyPath);
AssemblyName updatedAssemblyName = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(updatedAssemblyPath);

// Compare both versions
if (updatedAssemblyName.Version.CompareTo(currentAssemblyName.Version) <= 0)
{
    // There's nothing to update
    return;
}

// Update older version
File.Copy(updatedAssemblyPath, currentAssemblyPath, true);