22. What is GAC in .NET?

The global assembly cache stores assemblies specifically designated to be shared by several applications on the computer. You should share assemblies by installing them into the global assembly cache only when you need to. Assemblies deployed in the global assembly cache must have a strong name. When an assembly is added to the global assembly cache, integrity checks are performed on all files that make up the assembly. The cache performs these integrity checks to ensure that an assembly has not been tampered with, for example, when a file has changed but the manifest does not reflect the change. Use a developer tool called the Global Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET Framework SDK or Use Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the cache. To install a strong-named assembly into the global assembly cache At the command prompt, type the following command:

gacutil I

In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to install in the global assembly cache.

23. What is a Metadata in .NET?

Metadata is information about a PE. In COM, metadata is communicated through non-standardized type libraries.

In .NET, this data is contained in the header portion of a COFF-compliant PE and follows certain guidelines; it contains information such as the assembly’s name, version, language (spoken, not computera.k.a., culture), what external types are referenced, what internal types are exposed, methods, properties, classes, and much more.

The CLR uses metadata for a number of specific purposes. Security is managed through a public key in the PE’s header.

Information about classes, modules, and so forth allows the CLR to know in advance what structures are necessary. The class loader component of the CLR uses metadata to locate specific classes within assemblies, either locally or across networks.

Just-in-time (JIT) compilers use the metadata to turn IL into executable code.

Other programs take advantage of metadata as well.

A common example is placing a Microsoft Word document on a Windows 2000 desktop. If the document file has completed comments, author, title, or other Properties metadata, the text is displayed as a tool tip when a user hovers the mouse over the document on the desktop. You can use the Ildasm.exe utility to view the metadata in a PE. Literally, this tool is an IL disassembler.

24. What is managed code and managed data in .NET?

Managed code is code that is written to target the services of the Common Language Runtime.
In order to target these services, the code must provide a minimum level of information (metadata) to the runtime.
All C#, Visual Basic .NET, and JScript .NET code is managed by default.
Visual Studio .NET C++ code is not managed by default, but the compiler can produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (/CLR).
Closely related to managed code is managed data--data that is allocated and de- allocated by the Common Language Runtime's garbage collector. C#, Visual Basic, and JScript .NET data is managed by default.
C# data can, however, be marked as unmanaged through the use of special keywords.
Visual Studio .NET C++ data is unmanaged by default (even when using the /CLR switch), but when using Managed Extensions for C++, a class can be marked as managed using the __gc keyword. As the name suggests, this means that the memory for instances of the class is managed by the garbage collector.
In addition, the class becomes a full participating member of the .NET Framework community, with the benefits and restrictions that it brings. An example of a benefit is proper interoperability with classes written in other languages (for example, a managed C++ class can inherit from a Visual Basic class).
An example of a restriction is that a managed class can only inherit from one base class.