Is it possible to create a binding redirect at runtime?

Question

Once an application has started is there a way to create a binding redirect that will apply to all future assembly loads?

@darin. so is that a "i dont know"? it is a fairly convoluted case and not really worth explaining here. — Simon, Apr 13 '11 at 08:35
@František assemblies load on domand. So I want to control binding for when assemblies are loaded during the life of the application — Simon, Apr 13 '11 at 08:39
@Simon I am just asking for clarification on what you are trying to achieve. That's all. — Darin Dimitrov, Apr 13 '11 at 08:41
@darin i am trying to get around an obscure file lock issue to do with a VS addin. forcing a binding to fail may give me a back door to workaround the issue. this is a greatly summarised description :) — Simon, Apr 13 '11 at 08:44
@Simon: is it something you could use `AppDomain.AssemblyResolve` event for? — František Žiačik, Apr 13 '11 at 08:51
@František AppDomain.AssemblyResolve only fires for an assembly failure. so no it does not help — Simon, Apr 13 '11 at 09:52
@Simon, I've got this exact same issue now. Did you ever find a solution? — Cory Nelson, Oct 21 '13 at 01:40
@CoryNelson no. I marked Gaels answer as correct because it seems like the correct way to go. but I was not able to achieve this — Simon, Oct 21 '13 at 06:49

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 21 '15 at 14:53

Sorry for responding to an old post, but this blog has a much better answer to the question. Hope someone finds it useful.

My use case: doing a binding redirect from a COM interop assembly invoked by a classic ASP application.

http://blog.slaks.net/2013-12-25/redirecting-assembly-loads-at-runtime/

This function from the post in question will do what you want:

public static void RedirectAssembly(string shortName, Version targetVersion, string publicKeyToken) {
    ResolveEventHandler handler = null;

    handler = (sender, args) => {
        // Use latest strong name & version when trying to load SDK assemblies
        var requestedAssembly = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
        if (requestedAssembly.Name != shortName)
            return null;

        Debug.WriteLine("Redirecting assembly load of " + args.Name
                      + ",\tloaded by " + (args.RequestingAssembly == null ? "(unknown)" : args.RequestingAssembly.FullName));

        requestedAssembly.Version = targetVersion;
        requestedAssembly.SetPublicKeyToken(new AssemblyName("x, PublicKeyToken=" + publicKeyToken).GetPublicKeyToken());
        requestedAssembly.CultureInfo = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;

        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve -= handler;

        return Assembly.Load(requestedAssembly);
    };
    AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += handler;
}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 20 '12 at 08:14

It could be possible using ICLRHostBindingPolicyManager::ModifyApplicationPolicy, but I've never tried myself. Note that this is a CLR-level interface, so you can't load policies for individual AppDomains (which is why it is not used by PostSharp yet).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164378.aspx

Is it possible to create a binding redirect at runtime?

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