[Pnet-developers] Assembly cache integration

[Rhys Weatherley]

Hi all!

I have made a lot of changes to pnet, pnetlib, pnetC, and ml-pnet over the 
last week to integrate the new assembly cache.  Everyone who builds from CVS 
will need to check out a fresh copy and rebuild everything.

The pnet assembly directory (e.g. /usr/local/lib/cscc/lib) used to contain 
just the library *.dll assemblies.  It now has a more involved structure.  
e.g. all assemblies with the version number 1.2.3400.0 are placed under a 
version-specific sub-directory.  Symlinks are used to associate default 
fallback assemblies with their actual versions.

Because the cache is more complicated now, I have provided the "ilgac" utility 
to simplify the installation process.  For example, the following command 
will install "foobar.dll" into the cache as the default fallback:

    ilgac --install --default foobar.dll

The version number is read from the assembly.  Uninstalling is similar:

    ilgac --uninstall foobar.dll

The uninstall process will automatically clean up symlinks if the assembly is 
registered as the default.

Unlike other GAC implementations, pnet's does not keep a registry of 
associations off to the side.  Placing an assembly and its associated 
symlinks in the correct location will automatically register it.  No other 
action is necessary.  Package maintainers don't need to worry about "ilgac" 
at all - just place the files in the right location and it will "just work".

More information on the cache structure, and how to use the "ilgac" utility, 
can be found in the "ilgac.1" manual page.

Cheers,

Rhys.