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Netmodules revisited

Tue, February 15, 2005, 01:25 PM under MobileAndEmbedded
Alternative title: "Discovery of the day, link.exe"

Recall how at the Beta 1 timeframe we saw CF 2.0 add support for multi-file assemblies? If not, please go and read it, as the content here builds on that (here based on November CTP).

a) Follow steps 1, 2 and 3 from that post (adjusting the path to [drive letter]\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SmartDevices\SDK\CompactFramework\2.0\Debugger\BCL).

b) Change step 4 by typing /t:module just before ProgramMixed.cs
You now have two files (Form1Mixed.netmodule & ProgramMixed.netmodule) but, instead of one of them being an exe and the other a netmodule, they are both netmodules. Recall from step 5 that running the exe would work only if the netmodule accompanied the exe (hence the talk of multi-file assemblies).

c) Now, enter the following at the command line:
link /LTCG /verbose /entry:MixedLanguages.Program.Main /out:SingleFile.exe Form1Mixed.netmodule ProgramMixed.netmodule /subsystem:windows

The result is a single executable that contains the IL from both netmodules (that you recall were written in two different languages)! And we didn't even have to use ilmerge.

[This blog entry was inspired by this post]
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