The Global assembly cache (GAC) stores assemblies
specifically designated to be shared by several applications on the computer.
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. GAC physically creates
directories for each version of assembly. The Global Assembly Cache (GAC), when
viewed using Explorer, has its view rendered in a special manner by the OS
shell. When an Assembly is added to GAC these are the attributes that it takes.
·
Assembly Name – Name of the Assembly
·
Version – Version [Major-Minor-Revision-Build]
·
Culture – Culture will be null for normal Assembly
·
Public Key Token - This is a 64-bit hash of the public key which makes the assembly name unique
·
Processor Architecture – Either MSIL or x86