C# Essentials

Chapter 5. Essential .NET Tools

The .NET Framework SDK contains many useful programming tools. Here, in an alphabetical list, are those we have found most useful or necessary for developing C# applications. Unless otherwise noted, the tools in this list can all be found in the \bin directory of your .NET Framework SDK installation, but once the .NET Framework is installed, you can access them from any directory. To use any of these tools, invoke a Command Prompt window and enter the name of the desired tool. For a complete list of the available command-line switches for any given tool, enter the tool name (e.g., csc) and press the Return key.

ADepends.exe: assembly dependency list

Adepends displays all assemblies that a given assembly is dependent on to load. This is a useful C# program found among the samples in the \tool developers guide directory of the .NET Framework directory tree. You need to install these samples before you can use them, because they are not installed by default.

Al.exe: assembly linking utility

Creates an assembly manifest from the modules and resources files you name. You can also include Win32 resources files. Here’s an example:

al /out:c.dll a.dll b.dll

CorDbg.exe: runtime debugger

General source level command line debug utility for MSIL programs. Very useful tool for C# source debugging. Source for cordbg is available in the \tool developers guide directory.

Csc.exe: C# compiler

Compiles C# sources, and incorporates resource files and separately compiled modules. ...