I would like to test my app under the Mono runtime (to see if the SIMD support can offer me any performance improvements). I am compiling my app with csc.exe (in Visual Studio 2005) and then running it as mono.exe --debug MyApp.exe. However, Mono is using their own implementation of the core libraries (System.IO, etc.) which have some stuff not implemented.
Is it possible to tell the Mono runtime to use the core libraries shipped by Microsoft, rather than their own?
(Yes, I do realize that this would mean I'd have to distribute both MS .NET 2.0 and Mono with my app. If SIMD support is helpful for me, I'll eliminate these dependencies and use Mono's implementation. For now, I just want to test out the SIMD stuff without having to make a whole lot of other changes.)
You could put Microsoft's assemblies in your app's bin folder, and I think they would be picked up and used. If nothing else, you can put Microsoft's assemblies in Mono's GAC so it would have no choice but to use them.
Having said that, I highly doubt Microsoft's assemblies will work due to coupling between the assemblies and the runtime. (That is, the assemblies probably make private calls into the runtime that are different than Mono's runtime.)
Related
Our project structure is like,
native.dll :- This contains pure native code written in c\c++.
This native.dll exposes some functions using *def file.
Wrapper Library(wrapper.dll compiled with .Net framework v4.0) :-
In order to use functionality of native.dll, a Wrapper lib(wrapper.dll)
is written in C++\CLI using :clr\oldsyntax. This wrapper has all
code of Interoperability and Marshalling.
Application(Console App v4.0) directly uses wrapper.dll to use functionality provided
by native.dll.
Now this project needs to run in .Net Core. This means we will have an
.Net Core application that will reference wrapper.dll that in turn will refer
native.dll.
I know this will not directly work. But the issue is whether .Net Core(CoreCLR) supports
C++\CLI (clr\oldsyntax) runtime environment ?
If no, what can be the possible solutions to this application work ?
whether .Net Core(CoreCLR) supports C++\CLI (clr\oldsyntax) runtime environment ?
As far as I know there is no plan to support C++/CLI with .NET Core.
If no, what can be the possible solutions to this application work ?
You can (should) provide a C API. Mono e. g. supports P/Invoke and .NET Core also supports P/Invoke (see also this Stack overflow question and this DllMap related ticket).
Update (2022-09-02): This answer is from 2016. See the other answers (e.g., this) for what is possible with recent .Net Core versions.
Officially announced eventually...
(next wish... support linux # .Net 5 ^^)
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/the-future-of-cpp-cli-and-dotnet-core-3/
C++/CLI will have full IDE support for targeting .NET Core 3.1 and higher. This support will include projects, IntelliSense, and mixed-mode debugging (IJW) on Windows. We don’t currently have plans for C++/CLI for targeting macOS or Linux. Additionally, compiling with “/clr:pure” and “/clr:safe” won’t be supported for .NET Core.
The first public previews for C++/CLI are right around the corner. Visual Studio 2019 16.4 Preview 1 includes an updated compiler with “/clr:netcore”
Updat: From replied of origin url:
"We are still working on the IDE and MSBuild integration, so I can’t share a sample project quite yet. Once it’s available, likely with 16.4 Preview 2 or 3"
(16.4 Preview1 cannot create C++/CLI with .NetCore project.)
191015
16.4 Preview2 Released.
I'v tried asp.net core 3.1 with c++/CLI dll, it works.
(need set plateform to x64 both asp.net core and c++/CLI dll)
.net Core team will only commit (now?) to supporting C++/CLI for Windows only.
The intention was to deliver it for .net Core 3.0. While I haven't found explicit mention of it yet in the release notes, C++/CLI support was a prerequisite for delivering WPF (windows-only), which is now supported in .net Core 3.0.
Support mixed-mode assemblies on Windows - #18013
This issue (#18013) will track progress toward supporting loading and running
mixed-mode assemblies on CoreCLR. The main goal is to provide support
for WPF and other existing C++/CLI code on .NET Core. Some of the work
will be dependent on updates to the MSVC compiler.
The github issue (#659) mentioned above by #Tomas-Kubes, Will CoreCLR support C++/CLI crossplat? - #659, is about cross-platform C++/CLI.
BTW, I am getting compiler warnings on "clr\oldsyntax" with VS2017/.net-4.7. So this compiler flag is already deprecated.
UPDATE: This isn't coming till .Net Core 3.1
Another potential solution (though obviously quite a difficult task) if you want to stick with C++ (i.e. expose an OO interface to .NET) might be to have a look at CppSharp from the mono project. It is able to expose native C++ code through an automatically generated C# wrapper. It supports Windows, Linux as well as OSX. However, I don't know if the generated code can be compiled to a .NET standard target (didn't try to). I can only suppose it would because the generated code does not use any fancy API (it is basically interop and marshalling code); and, by the way, it is also possible to customize the generation process (although, once again, probably not an easy task).
For those who are looking at this for general .Net Core stuff without specific clr parameters (as this is a high result on google) Microsoft have written a guide on how to port C++/CLI to .Net Core:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/porting/cpp-cli
Port a C++/CLI project
To port a C++/CLI project to .NET Core, make the following changes to the .vcxproj file. These migration steps differ from the steps needed for other project types because C++/CLI projects don't use SDK-style project files.
Replace <CLRSupport>true</CLRSupport> properties with <CLRSupport>NetCore</CLRSupport>. This property is often in configuration-specific property groups, so you may need to replace it in multiple places.
Replace <TargetFrameworkVersion> properties with <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>.
Remove any .NET Framework references (like <Reference Include="System" />). .NET Core SDK assemblies are automatically referenced when using <CLRSupport>NetCore</CLRSupport>.
Update API usage in .cpp files, as necessary, to remove APIs unavailable to .NET Core. Because C++/CLI projects tend to be fairly thin interop layers, there are often not many changes needed. You can use the .NET Portability Analyzer to identify unsupported .NET APIs used by C++/CLI binaries just as with purely managed binaries.
Build without MSBuild
It's also possible to build C++/CLI projects without using MSBuild. Follow these steps to build a C++/CLI project for .NET Core directly with cl.exe and link.exe:
When compiling, pass -clr:netcore to cl.exe.
Reference necessary .NET Core reference assemblies.
When linking, provide the .NET Core app host directory as a LibPath (so that ijwhost.lib can be found).
Copy ijwhost.dll (from the .NET Core app host directory) to the project's output directory.
Make sure a runtimeconfig.json file exists for the first component of the application that will run managed code. If the application has a managed entry point, a runtime.config file will be created and copied automatically. If the application has a native entry point, though, you need to create a runtimeconfig.json file for the first C++/CLI library to use the .NET Core runtime.
There are some more nuances but these are the actual steps to port
NuGet documentation is quite clear: there is no target for plain Mono projects. We have Monoandroid, Monotouch, Monomac, and a few flavours of Xamarin for various platforms.
On one hand, if Mono is binary compatible to .NET, it shouldn't need different DLLs. And indeed "Mono is binary compatible with Windows. Which means that you can run binaries produced by .NET compilers from Microsoft and other vendors." according to the Mono FAQ.
On the other hand, "Mono does not have every .NET API implemented and when executing a binary from Windows that consumes an unimplemented API you might get an obscure message about tokens not being found."
So I think we need a specific Mono target. Am I missing something?
Your point is absolutely correct, but as everything in opesource - you need to implement it yourself (or hire me :) )
We are using some old open-source .Net Framework libraries that depend on things that are not in .Net Core. Can Mono be used to fill in the rest of .Net Framework?
Specifically I'm thinking of creating a Universal Windows class library that includes everything in Mono (excluding some of the System namespace) that changes the namespaces from System.* to MonoSupport.System.*.
Of course, better approaches would be to re-write the library's code, use a different library, or be more selective in taking things from Mono. I was hoping to do this as a temporary measure.
(I want to use iTextSharpLGPL but it uses XmlTextReader, streams with .Close(), System.Security.Cryptography, etc.. The pay version of the library does not support UWP either.)
Edit: I gave up on this and rewrote my app to use Apitron. That worked great until I tried to deploy and found out they don't support .NET Native. I'm now waiting for some library to support PDF generation on UWP.
I do not think so. The following immediate reasons
Mono is a clone of the .NET Framework and therefore based on mscorlib ideas, while UWP is based on System.Runtime. Would require significant extra effort.
UWP apps - when released - are based on the .NET Native runtime. This runtime enforces some patterns in the library implementations (e.g. no reflection, no C++ implementation of types etc). Mono is also strong in AOT, but I think there are dragons.
Mono is a bad choice. Better is the microsoft referencesource for the .NET Framework as published on github.
The time you will invest in your plan will be so significant high, it is much better invested fixing it in corefx directly and wait for the next release of UWP to contain your fixes.
For your problem I would urgently recommend you to fix the problem as a submission upstream at iTextSharpLGPL by surfacing new methods and removing of close or maybe by just copying the MIT licensed XmlTtextReader. But I highly recommend you, not to mess around with crypto ;)
What's the story going to be (if any) around interop with unmanaged code for ASP.net vNext / Core CLR?
The key bits (DllImport and friends) appear to be present to allow for unmanaged code interop, but how would things such as packaging and deployment work in this context? The basic build artifact in vNext / CoreFX no longer appears to be an assembly, but a NuGet package. So in that case, how would we make the new project.json system work so that unmanaged dlls that we're P/Invoking into are also included in the resulting NuGet package?
Or am I talking about scenarios that have not been considered yet (or more disappointingly, not going to happen)?
The story is yet to be fully fleshed out, but there are already examples of how to do this. Ultimately we (the Microsoft teams working on this) are working on some scenarios to enable NuGet packages to better support native content in packages.
To see one example of this, the Kestrel web server has some of its own managed code, plus it includes libuv in its NuGet package for an efficient async IO implementation that is cross-platform.
Because there isn't yet a built-in general solution in NuGet, the build scripts for Kestrel use some custom actions to include the native content in the NuGet package. Then to load libuv there's some code that dynamically figures out which native libuv to load based on the environment in which it is running.
So, yeah, it's a bit messy, but it does work, and this is definitely high on the team's priority list to improve.
I'm having a problem with assembly resolution on an end-user machine and I believe it's related to using Portable Class Libraries....
I have a .NET 4.0 application that was originally written in Visual Studio 2010. Recently we upgraded to Visual Studio 2012 and we've created a few projects that are Portable Class Libraries. I don't believe we need these features now, but we're also building a Windows 8 Store application that might benefit from these libraries.
When I compile my project, what exactly does the portable library feature do? I expect that it allows me to run it on different frameworks without modification or recompiling.
When I look at the library in reflector dotPeek it shows the Platform attribute as:
.NETPortable,Version=v4.0,Profile=Profile5
And the references seem 2.0-ish:
mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0
System, Version=2.0.5.0
System.Runtime.Serialization, Version=2.0.5.0
When I run the application on this end-user's machine, I see an error in the log file:
Could not load file or assembly, 'System.Core, Version=2.0.5.0...'
Googling System.Core 2.0.5.0 seems to refer to SilverLight -- which appears to be one of the targeted frameworks.
This machine does not have Visual Studio installed, but has .NET 4.0 (4.0.3 update)
Is there something I should be doing differently to compile, something I should investigate in my dependencies or something I should be looking to install on the end-user machine? What does the 2.0.5.0 refer to?
For .NET 4, you need an update (KB2468871) for Portable Class Libraries to work. From the KB Article:
Feature 5
Changes to the support portable libraries. These changes include API
updates and binder modifications. This update enables the CLR to bind
successfully to portable libraries so that a single DLL can run on the
.NET Framework 4, on Silverlight, on Xbox, or on the Windows Phone.
This update adds public Silverlight APIs to the .NET Framework 4 in
the same location. The API signatures will remain consistent across
the platform. All modifications are 100 percent compatible and will
not break any existing code.
Also see the "Deploying A .NET Framework App" section of the MSDN Portable Class Library Documentation.
EDIT: Actually, if the machine has .NET 4.0.3 installed as you mention, that should be sufficient. Can you double-check to make sure that it is actually installed?