Specifying the runtime version | Tech Off

mstefan
Windows SDK coders do it without a .NET

Is there a command line option (or some other way) to explicitly specify the runtime version for an assembly other than the default (e.g.: "v2.0.50727")? In other words, specify your own value that's returned by Assembly.ImageRuntimeVersion?

littleguru
<3 Seattle

I hope not! If the runtime is version 2.0.x it should always return that. What are you trying to achieve? Could you give us further information?

mstefan
Windows SDK coders do it without a .NET

I'd like to change that value to differentiate between different versions of an assembly, one that targets 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5. The problem is, regardless of which framework you target, the runtime version is always shown as 2.0.50727. So you end up with 3 assemblies, all the same name, all showing the same version, listed in the Add References dialog (the only difference being their path, which is less than obvious).

It's largely a cosmetic issue, primarily to avoid support related questions ("I'm targetting version 3.5 of the framework, but it shows version 2.0 as the runtime version for the assembly...") My understanding is that value is purely informational; if the compiler wanted to set "My dog's name is Fred" as the ImageRuntimeVersion value, it could and it shouldn't affect the actual operation of the assembly.

littleguru
<3 Seattle

The Assembly.ImageRuntimeVersion is fetched by querying the current framework and returning the version of that. It's an internal framework call and not set by the compiler in any way!

You probably need another way to distinguish your assemblies...

mstefan
Windows SDK coders do it without a .NET

Thanks. I had understood it was an attribute set the by the compiler based on the version of the framework that the assembly targets. Looks like I was wrong there.

evildictaitor
if( !succeed( try() ) ) { while(true) try(); }

///<summary>
///Gets a string representing the version of the common language runtime (CLR)
///saved in the file containing the manifest.
///</summary>
///<returns>
///A string representing the CLR version folder name. This is not a full path.
///</summary>
[ComVisible(false)]
public virtual string ImageRuntimeVersion {
   get {
      [...]
   }
}

This is the version of the CLR implementation, not the version of the framework.

littleguru
<3 Seattle

*arg* Sorry...

Well as from the description it seems that you need to compile it with the different versions of the C# compiler (for .NET 1.0, .NET 1.1, .NET 2.0, etc) to get the appropriate version embedded.

MSDN Library wrote:
By default, ImageRuntimeVersion is set to the version of the CLR used to build the assembly. However, it might have been set to another value at compile time.

Sorry again! My fault.