Diff between COM DLL, Regular DLL and .NET DLL

[gopal]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me how to differentiate between COM DLL, regularDLL and
..NET DLLs?

I am trying to read the file information from file properties like
filename, version, productname, compnay etc.

But how can DLLs be differentiated.

For .NET DLL, there is a entry called - Assembly Version, but i am
unbale read the string itself - "Assembly Version" althjough i aam ablr
to rtead the version

i have a set of files and i want to loop throug the the files and get
the file information and importantly the differnce bwtween above DLLs
from File version?

Any help?

Thanks & Regards
JP

 

[Kevin Spencer]

A COM DLL is a COM library. It has a COM interface. A "regular" DLL is a
function library. A .Net DLL is a .Net assembly. .Net is truly
multi-threaded. Unmanaged code is Single Thread Apartment.

As to how you "read" the DLL, you haven't told us what you mean by "read".
Ar you looking for the byte order of these file types? If so, here is a site
that has byte orders for many file types:

http://www.wotsit.org/

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Chicken Salad Surgery

What You Seek Is What You Get.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

I just checked that reference, and it doesn't mention DLL file formats
(probably because there are so many of them). Here are a couple of other
sites that may be helpful:

http://www.iecc.com/linker/
http://madchat.org/vxdevl/papers/winsys/pefile/pefile.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/02/PE/

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Chicken Salad Surgery

What You Seek Is What You Get.

 

[gopal]

Hi

Thanks for the information.

When i said reading, i am getting all the details about the version.

I have a simple tool whihc have to look out for type of application
whether it is COM DLL, regular DLL, Activex, OCX fil, COM exe and also
finding the version. Based upon the vesion - version means not only the
file version, but some entirs like OLESelfRegister

If the type of DLL is .NET then i will call regasm <<argument>>, if
COM dll register using regsvr32, but how can i read the version details

But i am not able to differenitate between the DLLs & COM exes & OCX

 

[Guest]

If the DLL has the information called "Assembly Version", then its a .Net
DLL. If it is self registering COM component, then it should have information
called "OLESelfRegister". Those DLLs which do not have "OLESelfRegister"
information, they can't be registered with regsvr32 utility.