C# Language Pocket Reference

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 be found either in the \bin directory of your .NET Framework SDK installation or in the %SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\VERSION directory (replace VERSION with the framework version). Once the .NET Framework is installed, you can access these tools 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

Displays all assemblies on which a given assembly is dependent to load. This is a useful C# program found among the samples in the \Tool Developers Guide directory beneath the .NET Framework or Visual Studio .NET 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.netmodule b.netmodule

CorDbg.exe: runtime debugger

General source-level, command-line debug utility for MSIL programs. This is a very useful tool for C# source debugging. The source for ...