Im running native? query at runtime

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Is there any accurate way to determine if an assembly (actually, the current process/assembly) is running GACed/MSIL or Native ?

I have successfully tested a few assemblies with the fuslogvw.exe utility, and I can determine manually if the running program was loaded from a native image or not, but I want to be able to determine that at runtine.

So far, I have tested a few approaches, but none of them seems to be valid.

1) Existence of the clrjit.dll module Loaded... wrong, it's ALWAYS loaded, native or gaced.

2) Existence of the mscorjit.dll module loaded... wrong, its NEVER loaded, or at least, not as a part of the process modules

3) If Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.GlobalAssemblyCache , wrong, as it tells if the assemly is in the GAC, but not if its native or not... or at least, its always returning false on me.

Has anyone else got any approach with success on this?

Posted 3-Feb-11 4:48am

creizlein

Updated 7-Feb-11 23:45pm

Dalek Dave

v2

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Dalek Dave 8-Feb-11 5:45am

Edited for Grammar.

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creizlein · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-07T23:11:00

Looks like no one knows of an elegant or accurate solution, but i have come with an approach, that might not be bright, but at least seems to be accurate, somehow. and i decided to share it with everyone.

According to my researches, .NET native images are identified, in a partial way, by the .ni. name, so, System.Forms.dll has a System.Forms.ni.dll native image, and then, MyApplication.exe has an MyApplication.ni.exe native image, if exist.

Also, to give us another hint, we know that all native images are located on the assembly directory under the %windir%.

Now, we can just query all the modules loaded by our application, and see if one of them is "our native file" application name.

VB

Dim ImNative As Boolean = False
Dim MyFile As String = IO.Path.GetFileName(Application.ExecutablePath).ToLower.Replace(".exe", ".ni.exe").Trim
For Each m As ProcessModule In Process.GetCurrentProcess.Modules
  If MyFile.ToLower = IO.Path.GetFileName(m.FileName).ToLower AndAlso m.FileName.ToLower.Contains("\assembly\nativeimages") Then
    ImNative = True : Exit For
  End If
Next

If ImNative Then Msgbox("Yes, you are running a native image of this assembly.")