DLL, GAC, and Multiple Web Sites

[Smithers]

Just wondering if it is perfectly straight-forward and safe to have a .dll
installed in the GAC on a Web server - and have multiple Web sites make use
of the .dll.

Until now I've been XCopying all files for each Web site - including
duplicating .dlls amongst the sites. I was wondering if I would benefit from
moving the common assemblies to the GAC or continue duplicating them amongst
Web sites.

Would a dll installed in the GAC load into each Web site's AppDomain just as
if it were installed in the site's bin directory?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
as you have mentioned this more about securing your application and web
server than about anything else. Assembly in GAC runs always in FullTrust
mode and by default can be called only by fully trusted callers - you can
change this behavior by applying assembly:AllowPartialyTrustedCallers so
partialy trusted web application can also use this assembly. The question is
if this is really way which you want to go because any assembly running on
your machine can then use that assembly installed in GAC.

Installing assembly to GAC can generaly reduce deployment tasks and allow
you to control versioning in much easier way. But from the security view it
should not be the best way to go.

Regards,
Ladislav

 

[Guest]

If it works, sounds fine to me. Just remember that when you've got a GAC'ed
assembly and you need to change things, you'll now have additional deployment
/ maintenance issues to deal with.
-- Peter
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