[Mono-dev] Replacing single dll on the fly

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> I'm experiencing strange behaviours using mod_mono on linux.
> I successfully configure and install my web application (composed of 
> many dlls) and it runs correctly.
> When I find some problem and I modify some library, I have to replace 
> the patched dll. If I replace the single dll most of times mono says 
> that he can't find the dll (even if it's there) or some other loading problems.
> I'll try to investigate and report the errors in a better way but my 
> question is: there's some "correct way" for compiling and replacing 
> single dlls of a web application in order to avoid problems? (let's 
> say "compile dll with some flag","stop apache", "replace dll", "start apache").

Today Mono is missing support for ShadowCopyFiles, which means that the
dll files that are on the bin directory are live files.

To properly upgrade a library, you must use "install" to copy the files
(install removes the target first, then copies the new file) which will
allow the Mono runtime to detect the change and load the new file
without breaking.

See:

http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_ASP.NET#My_application_fails_if_I_replace_binaries

Miguel.