Cecil documentation, the mysterious TypeDefinition <Module> and differences from reflection

[Artun]

Hello,

I am developing a framework which represents .NET assemblies as XML
documents, mainly to allow easier analyzation of .NET assemblies using
XML query languages. I am using Mono and Cecil to develop my component
which converts CIL into XML. Cecil is simple to use and quite
powerful. Thanks for this great library. :)

I have a couple of questions:

1) What is the meaning of the first module in the MainModule.Types? It
has a FullName called <Module>. It does not have a namespace or types.
(It can also be seen in the first example of the Cecil faq:
http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil:FAQ)

2) Is there a documentation for Cecil (other than source code)?

3) http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil states this following:
"Reflection and Reflection.Emit only expose a subset of all the
features in a CLI image.". Which features in particular can be
introspected with Cecil, that can not be introspected by reflection?
(Just the most important features would be sufficient)

Best regards,

Artun

[Jb Evain]

Hey,

On 4/11/08, Artun <asu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) What is the meaning of the first module in the MainModule.Types? It
> has a FullName called <Module>. It does not have a namespace or types.

It's part of the spec, to be valid an assembly has to have a <Module>
type. Some languages use that type for global methods or globals
variables.

> 2) Is there a documentation for Cecil (other than source code)?

Nop. It has plenty of examples all over the place though.

> 3) http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil states this following:
> "Reflection and Reflection.Emit only expose a subset of all the
> features in a CLI image.". Which features in particular can be
> introspected with Cecil, that can not be introspected by reflection?
> (Just the most important features would be sufficient)

* Sys.Reflection only gives you a very primitive access to the CIL
code of the methods (a simple byte []), while Cecil gives you a more
advanced view on this.

* There's a lot of little details I'll let you dig that Cecil can
handle, and that System.Reflection can not.

--
Jb Evain <j...@nurv.fr>

[Artun]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Where can I find more information about the <Module> type? Search
engines like google and yahoo are omitting the '<>' characters, so I
can't really search for it. Maybe you could point me to the specs you
mentioned?

Regards,

Artun

On Apr 11, 7:31 pm, "Jb Evain" <j...@nurv.fr> wrote:
> Hey,

>
> On 4/11/08, Artun <asub...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 1) What is the meaning of the first module in the MainModule.Types? It
> > has a FullName called <Module>. It does not have a namespace or types.
>
> It's part of the spec, to be valid an assembly has to have a <Module>
> type. Some languages use that type for global methods or globals
> variables.
>
> > 2) Is there a documentation for Cecil (other than source code)?
>
> Nop. It has plenty of examples all over the place though.
>

> > 3)http://www.mono-project.com/Cecilstates this following:

[Jb Evain]

On 4/11/08, Artun <asu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Where can I find more information about the <Module> type? Search
> engines like google and yahoo are omitting the '<>' characters, so I
> can't really search for it. Maybe you could point me to the specs you
> mentioned?

You can google for "ECMA 335".

--
Jb Evain <j...@nurv.fr>

[Artun]

Hi again,

On Apr 11, 7:31 pm, "Jb Evain" <j...@nurv.fr> wrote:
> > 1) What is the meaning of the firstmodulein the MainModule.Types? It

> > has a FullName called <Module>. It does not have a namespace or types.
>
> It's part of the spec, to be valid an assembly has to have a <Module>
> type. Some languages use that type for global methods or globals
> variables.

> --
> Jb Evain <j...@nurv.fr>

I noticed today that the output doesn't contain a type called <Module>
if I disassemble my assemblies with monodis. Using Cecil, I see that
an empty <Module> type is there.

Does monodis skip the <Module> type because it is empty? Any ideas
there?

[Artun]

An update to my previous question. Eventhough normal output of monodis
doesn't contain any infos about the <Module> type, running monodis
with the--typedef flag shows an empty type.

Typedef Table
1: (null) (flist=1, mlist=1, flags=0x0, extends=0x0)
2: HelloWorld.MainClass (flist=1, mlist=1, flags=0x100000,
extends=0x5)
3: TestSpace.TestClass (flist=1, mlist=3, flags=0x100000, extends=0x5)
4: SomeOtherSpace.SecondClass (flist=1, mlist=6, flags=0x100001,
extends=0x5)

I assume the first typedef 1: (null) is the <Module> type itself.