I've implemented a plugin system in .NET. The base library implements basic classes and interfaces exposed to plugins, the plugin libraries links the base library for using exposed classes and interfaces.
The problem I'm facing is that a (simple) recompilation of the base library (with or without modifications) cause the plugins not able to being loaded, giving the exception message:
"Could not load file or assembly 'BaseLibrary, Version=0.0.1.68, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7b445b12e635292c' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)"
This problem is solved by compiling all at once the base library and the plugin libraries, but this is not very comfortable during development, since I modify base library quite frequently in this phase.
If there any method to "relax" binary matching?
Is it possible that the base library assembly information (quoted below) could be the casue of the problem?
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("0.0.1.*")]
I forgot to mention that assemblies are signed.
Assemblies are loaded using the following routine
Assembly hLibrary = Assembly.LoadFile(pPath);
Type plugImageCodecFactoryType = hLibrary.GetType("Derm.ImageCodecPluginFactory", true, false);
object plugImageCodecFactory = Activator.CreateInstance(plugImageCodecFactoryType);
object plugInstance;
MethodInfo plugFactoryCreate = plugImageCodecFactoryType.GetMethod("CreatePlugin", BindingFlags.Instance|BindingFlags.Public);
plugInstance = plugFactoryCreate.Invoke(plugImageCodecFactory, null);
if (plugInstance is IImageCodecPlugin)
RegisterPlugin((IImageCodecPlugin)plugInstance);
Read these questions and answers for a more thorough discussion on the use of AssemblyVersion vs AssemblyFileVersion.
Ignoring build numbers when referencing DLLs
Differences between AssemblyVersion and AssemblyFileVersion
The short version is that you should only change AssemblyVersion when you introduce a potentially breaking change on that assembly that will force dependants to take a new version.
For minor changes you can use AssemblyFileVersion to mark differences.
So I would use a static assembly version for development, increment it when you get to a stable release that you want to manage going forward and manage future version increments manually.