how to force a Timer Job solution to reference dll from gac

Question

I developed a timer job feature using wsp-builder now when I take wsp file and deploy it to our development server it references an old version of dll from GAC even tho I updated gac with latest version of my dll.

so as a solution I copied that specific dll in project by checking "Copy Local" property to true, Now it solved the problem but this doesn't sound right as if someone updated that dll and updated server, my timer service will still reference old version.

How can I force my timer job to get dll from Gac ?

Answer 1

When Fusion (the system behind .net that controls assembly binding) looks for an Assembly it will always look in the GAC first.

Whats probably happening here is :-

• You deploy your timer job assembly v1
• The Timer service loads the assembly v1
• You deploy your new timer assembly to the GAC (v2)
• The Timer service already has V2 'bound' so it will not load it until its restarted.

Solution - ensure you restart the Timer service when re-deploying.