[Mono-list] Detecting Mono Under Windows

[Charlie Poole]

A further issue... if I try to pick up an install in C:\Program
Files\Mono that doesn't have registry entries (e.g. 3.12) I see no
obvious way to determine the Mono version.

2016-08-27 10:56 GMT-07:00 Charlie Poole <charlie at nunit.com>:
> My mistake... the code at
> https://github.com/nunit/nunit/blob/d42d932d1db8fa169901d941c388497a7c3307ec/src/NUnitEngine/nunit.engine/RuntimeFramework.cs#L581
> is used in NUnit currently. Since we were only recognizing older
> versions of Mono, that code made some degree of sense. However, it
> appears that a few months back, somebody added the *-api directories
> to what was being looked for. That seems to be an error since we are
> trying to enumerate profiles under which we can run tests. That would
> involve only the mono-?.? directories and not mono-?.?-api as I
> understand it.
>
> Can you tell me at what version the notion of different profiles for
> execution disappears?
>
>
>
>
> 2016-08-26 13:58 GMT-07:00 Charlie Poole <charlie at nunit.com>:
>> Hi Alex,
>>
>> Thanks for the reply. The Windows machine I checked on had Mono 3.2.3
>> on it and seems to have yet another setting. The key
>> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novell\Mono\Mono DefaultCLR has value 3.2.3. I'll
>> download a 3.2.3 to make sure that's not a spurious setting somebody
>> (like an earlier version of me) created!
>>
>> As for the NUnit code you pointed to, the method was an experiment
>> that fortunately never made it into production.
>>
>> So, it looks as if I have three checks to make, stopping after the
>> first one succeeds:
>> 1. Content of HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mono (or HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Mono)
>> 2. Subkey indicated at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novell\Mono\Mono DefaultCLR\(Default)
>> 3. Subkey indicated at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novell\Mono\DefaultCLR
>>
>> Does that make sense to you?
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> 2016-08-26 13:27 GMT-07:00 Alexander Köplinger <alkpli at microsoft.com>:
>>> Hi Charlie!
>>>
>>> The new MSI based installers write the following registry keys since Mono 4.2:
>>>
>>> HKLM\Software\Mono (or HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Mono depending on whether you use the x64 or x86 installer):
>>> - Architecture
>>> - Installed
>>> - Version
>>> - SdkInstallRoot
>>> - FrameworkAssemblyDirectory
>>> - MonoConfigDir
>>>
>>> The MSI based installer was actually introduced in Mono 3.12, but it only wrote the "Installed" key back then. All these versions up till now install into C:\Program Files\Mono though so you could just look for that.
>>> There can only be one version of Mono installed on the machine (x64/x86 can be installed side by side) with the new installer.
>>>
>>> For the earlier .exe-based installers the Novell registry keys are still correct, though we had a quite long time where we didn’t produce Windows installers at all (I think from 3.0.10 – 3.12.0).
>>>
>>> - Alex
>>>
>>> PS: Regarding detecting Mono versions, please note that code like https://github.com/nunit/nunit/blob/d42d932d1db8fa169901d941c388497a7c3307ec/src/NUnitEngine/nunit.engine/RuntimeFramework.cs#L581 doesn't
>>> make sense on modern Mono versions since you can’t run against the 2.0/3.5/4.0 class libraries or CLR version anymore. You'll always run against the latest* libraries and runtime, which was part of the reason for renaming the profile folders
>>> to 2.0-api, 4.0-api and so on because we only keep them so you can still compile class libraries targeting these older profiles. They are reference assemblies with metadata only.
>>>
>>> * which is sadly still called 4.5 on disk because too many apps hardcoded that path even though it contains ~4.6.1 .NET APIs right now
>>>
>>>
>>> On 26/08/16 20:54, "Mono-list on behalf of Charlie Poole" <mono-list-bounces at lists.dot.net on behalf of charlie at nunit.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Hi All,
>>>
>>>     I'd like to fix NUnit so it detects all Mono installations under Windows.
>>>
>>>     The old code, now broken, looks at the registry entry
>>>     HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novell\Mono\DefaultCLR to find the default version and
>>>     then check HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novel\Mono\<version> to find the install
>>>     root.
>>>
>>>     It looks as if this has been broken for a long time - I've only been
>>>     using Mono on Linux myself and so didn't notice.
>>>
>>>     I'd like to know what to check currently and what other settings may
>>>     have been used over the years. Ideally, NUnit should find even a quite
>>>     old installation if a new one has not replaced it.
>>>
>>>     The alternative, of course, would be to enumerate all available
>>>     versions, default to the newest and let the user select older ones if
>>>     desired.
>>>
>>>     Any advice will be appreciated.
>>>
>>>     Charlie
>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>     Mono-list maillist  -  Mono-list at lists.dot.net
>>>     http://lists.dot.net/mailman/listinfo/mono-list
>>>
>>>