FileNotFoundException on MethodInfo.GetCustomAttribute - c#

My goal is to display information about the methods of some classes in an uploaded dll. Loading the assembly, finding the desired classes and their methods was already successfully done. Now I was trying to show whether a method is declared "async" or not.
I found a thread that tells me how to do it: How can I tell if a C# method is async/await via reflection?
Anyway, while testing, when I call this
(AsyncStateMachineAttribute)methodInfo.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(AsyncStateMachineAttribute))
I got a System.IO.FileNotFoundException - "Could not load file or assembly '{assembly identifier}' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.".
I found this exception in an unanswered thread, but it did not help me: How to prevent MemberInfo.IsDefined from throwing FileNotFoundException on irrelevant attributes?
I understand that the method I am looking at has an attribute that my code does not know. I do not want to load that reference because it is only a test case and many other different attributes can be found in the same situation.
So, I need an answer to one of two questions:
Is there a way to get the attribute "AsyncStateMachineAttribute", if it exists, ignoring the errors on other attributes?
Is there another way to check whether a method (from MethodInfo) is async?
Thanks in advance! :)

Related

Hiding types from being listed in Assembly.GetTypes in .net

Ive been looking everywhere for a possible solution to this but can't seem to find an answer. My issue is that I have a few classes that need to completely hidden from Assembly.getTypes, as I'm writing a plugin for an application, and it's picking up types that I need to remain hidden (this happens even if they are declared as private or internal classes).
anyone know how to either alter what assembly.GetTyes returns, or an ,aficionado attribute that will keep those types from being listed?
This is quite a hack and is very fragile, but could work.
Create 2 assemblies -- one for the plug-in and the second for the other types. The second would be placed in another known directory and loaded dynamically into the first when needed. (For example, via Assembly.LoadFrom.)
The first assembly would then be placed in the plug-in directory and only ever publish its types. This very fragile because you would likely have to hard-code a path to the second assembly and you run the risk of the file getting deleted or moved.
EDIT
#SLaks' comment takes away the fragility of this solution. If you embed the second assembly as a resource and load it at run-time, the app calling Assembly.GetTypes won't see the types you want hidden.
This is not possible.
Sorry.
Code that calls Assembly.GetTypes() should typically filter for only public types.
Welcome to managed code. Complete type information is necessary to .NET's type verifier. Only native code can be hidden from .NET metadata, and then you give up the portability and permissions supported by pure MSIL.

What causes CORDBG_E_CLASS_NOT_LOADED (HRESULT: 0x80131303)

While attempting to debug an application, I keep noticing that two of my arrays and one of my lists seems to be mysteriously... Not there. The error given for that (upon pausing the application and looking through my compiler's variable list) is "A class is not loaded HRESULT: 0x80131303".
After googling, I found out that that particular HRESULT is named "CORDBG_E_CLASS_NOT_LOADED", however I found nothing about it's possible cause, or how to solve it.
I would normally paste the relevant code here, but from what I can find, this error happens directly at the declaration of the effected arrays and list.
Can anyone here help?
You may be loading a class implicitly at startup, which causes an error because not everything is initialized yet. Make sure you are not accessing anything in an unloaded class that could cause this.

NullReferenceException from AlphaImage.CreateFromResource()

I am using the AlphaMobileControls library for the .NET Compact Framework. I am using AlphaImage.CreateFromResource(imageResourceName) to create an AlphaImage object. The problem is that this method is throwing a NullReferenceException. Looking at the code for this method, the problem is that this line of code is returning null:
MemoryStream stream =
(MemoryStream)Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(imageResourceName);
This was working fine before, and now it is not and I can't figure out why. It seems that I am passing a valid resource name. It is a resource that I added using the Resources tab of the project properties. Also in the Resources folder the image file is there and the Build Action is set to Embedded Resource. I even used this code to retrieve the available resources, and the one I am using was one of the returned values:
string[] names = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames();
Then I was thinking that maybe by the time the AlphaImage.CreateFromResource() method code is running the available resources might be different. So I modified the code to include the above statement and then throw an InvalidOperationException if the passed resource is not an available resource. When I run the program and step through the code with the debugger, the added code is not there anymore and an InvalidOperationException is not thrown and the code will run until the NullReferenceException occurs. I searched my projects to see if maybe there was a reference to another version of AlphaMobileControls other than the one with the modified code, but I could not find any.
Any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance!
Inspect the result from Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames(); and see whether the resource name you are looking for appears here. When it doesn't, your settings on the properties of the resource (specifically "Build action: Embedded resource") will probably be set incorrect. Otherwise, maybe a folder has been renamed and you need to change the value of imageResourceName.
Aren basically answered this for me with his comment. You need to call AlphaImage.CreateFromResource() from the assembly that has the required resource. Thanks Aren.
The change I made that caused this to stop working was that I moved the class that was calling AlphaImage.CreateFromResource() into a separate library from the one that had the image resource. Therefore Assembly.GetCallingAssembly() is returning the assembly that does not have the resource.

Unable to cast transparent proxy to type from AppDomain

I'm trying to create an object in an appdomain:
var type = typeof (CompiledTemplate);
var obj = (CompiledTemplate) domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap (
type.Assembly.FullName, type.FullName);
However, I always get the following error:
Unable to cast transparent proxy to type 'Mono.TextTemplating.CompiledTemplate'.
I'm running on .NET 4.0, not Mono, despite what the namespace might suggest :)
As far as I know, this error happens when .NET thinks that the Type & Assembly do not exactly match in the two domains. However, when debugging, the FullName and Location are identical. Only the Assembly.Codebase property differs - in the child AppDomain its extension is uppercased to "DLL" for some reason.
I've tried adding an AssemblyResolve handler to the AppDomain, which uses Assembly.LoadFrom to load the filename explicitly, but the CodeBase's extension still gets uppercased. Since the original assembly was also loaded with Assembly.LoadFrom (via Mono.Addins), the difference between the CodeBase values seems very strange.
Any suggestions for fixing or working around this problem?
Could you be running into an issue with assembly load contexts?
(e.g. see here)
You have a type that's clearly in the load context (because you're using typeof(CompiledTemplate)), but you're saying that the type in the secondary AD is loaded into the load-from context...
Did you check with fuslogvw to determine exactly what assemblies are being loaded? The fuslog trace will also tell you if the assemblies are being loaded into different contexts.
Perhaps you can use the dynamic keyword instead of casting it to a specific type:
var type = typeof (CompiledTemplate);
dynamic obj = domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap (
type.Assembly.FullName, type.FullName);
That might at least give you a workaround to the problem. Of course, the potential drawbacks will be not having compile time checking and/or slower performance. However, these might be negligible trade-offs depending on your situation.
A second copy of the assembly is, indeed, being loaded into memory as it is.
An instance of a type in the runtime is specific to the instance of the assembly loaded - so even if the same DLL file is loaded in a second time, the types are not considered to match.
This is a typical problem when "DLLHell" is extended into the "GACAndDLLHell". "GACONLYHeaven" is a better place ... :).
That the filenames are subtly different (the .DLL extension has a different case) implies that the same DLL is being loaded from two places (that is: the GAC is case-insensitive/always lower case on filenames IIRC).
An abstract class or, preferably, an interface is what you need here.
If you can't make changes to the code base I would, first, make very sure that the DLL exists in only 1 place on the drive (or 0 places on the drive if it is being loaded from the GAC). A copy of the DLL that contains the type: 'CompiledTemplate' in your app /bin folder would be a real culprit ...?
Is this new code or existing code that is now failing for some reason?
I have a WCF net named pipes application that uses a callback (duplex) architecture.
I got this error because my service interface's [ServiceContract] was annotated with the wrong callback.

Loading Assemblies into separate AppDomain, getting InvalidCastException

I'm trying to load assemblies in a separate app domain, but am running into a very strange problem. Here's some code:
public static void LoadAssembly(string assemblyPath)
{
string pathToDll = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().CodeBase;
AppDomainSetup domainSetup = new AppDomainSetup
{
PrivateBinPath = pathToDll
};
AppDomain newDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("AssemblyLoader",null,domainSetup);
AssemblyLoader loader = (AssemblyLoader)newDomain.CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap(
pathToDll,
typeof(AssemblyLoader).FullName);
}
AssemblyLoader is another class in the same assembly as this one, and it inherits from MarshalByRef, however for some strange reason, I get a cast exception every time I try to run this. I even hardcoded the path to the DLL instead of using GetCallingAssembly().CodeBase yet I keep getting this exception.
I understand it's hard to answer a question like this without actually seeing it and having more information, but maybe someone has run into a similar situation and would know the common "gotchas" and what I should look out for.
EDIT: The reason I don't want to load it directly is because this is just part of the code. The ultimate goal is that this class will have a method that load assemblies, gets their GUID and some other info about them and stores them in a database for a project I'm working on. Therefore, if I load this assembly in a separate app domain, I can load the others there too and then unload the app domain. No point in having all these assemblies loaded for the duration of the app, if I only need that data.
(EDIT: after reading the exception given, changing answer completely)
It appears the problem is the CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap call, which uses the LoadFrom semantics of 'pathToDll'. Suzanne Cook detailed the possible sticking point on her blog where your original AppDomain tries to call Load("SomeAssembly, [...]") as opposed to LoadFrom("pathToDll") when trying to resolve the type in question.
Her advice was to hook the AssemblyResolve event on the current domain to do the correct LoadFrom in order to get the type. A little bit of targetted googling brings up a possible solution to the problem based on Suzanne's suggestion.
I don't believe the PrivateBinPath configuration is necessary, beyond that you don't need to use the Path to the DLL, but rather the Assembly's fully qualified name for the first parameter; try:
AssemblyLoader loader = (AssemblyLoader)newDomain.CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap(
typeof(AssemblyLoader).Assembly.FullName,
typeof(AssemblyLoader).FullName);
There's a lot of good information for what you're trying to do here: How to load a .NET assembly for reflection operations and subsequently unload it?
Check out this article.
Using the code in that article I got a cross app-domain object. I abstracted things a bit with generics and have three assemblies. (i.e. 1 defining the interface, 1 defining the plugin implementation, and the main program which tells the generic what to load.) The original articles code is easy to follow.

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