[Mono-list] MONO_PATH and the assembly loading process

[Mathieu Cadet]

Hi all,

On the Mono Best Practices page [1] it's written that the environment
variable MONO_PATH should not be used for production environment as it
causes the assembly loader to just skip completely the GAC.
Is it still the case?

If so, how could I solve the following problem:

What I'm wanting to do is to have the runtime installed system-wide
and then to find a way to install mono applications and libraries
without being root.
Under this condition, I cannot assume that the GAC will be writeable
in any way and so I need a way to tell an application to load some
libraries (like gtk# for example) that were copied somewhere.

How can I do this without using MONO_PATH?

Or, can I use MONO_PATH safely if I make sure that nothing is ever
installed in the GAC? (It would be a stock mono runtime installation
and then every library/application would be installed locally in each
user home directory).


[1] http://www.mono-project.com/Best_Practices#MONO_PATH


Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Mathieu