How to Create a C# Library that is Loaded into Memory only Once?

Question

I would like to create a Class Library DLL in C#, that will have a Static Class in it. That static class has 1 private static member(int), with a public static property for it.

What I want is, that for Every C# Application that references this DLL, it will get the same static class.

Meaning If Application1 changes the static member's value to be 5, and then Application2 tries to get the value of the propery, it will get: 5.

Despite the fact that those are two different applications(EXEs).

In simply words, I want this whole class library to be "static", so only once will be loaded of it to memory, and then its single value will be shared accross different EXEs that reference it.

Thank you

Answer 1

An attractive solution to shared data amongst all processes on the same computer is shared memory. You will have to rewrite your properties to retrieve the shared value, and the class will be loaded multiple times into each process that uses your library, but it will behave as though there were only one copy, if you do it correctly.

Here is a StackOverflow question to help you get started:

• How to implement shared memory in .NET ?

It links to a complete shared-memory library you can use.

Answer 2

What you're looking for is some form of IPC or RPC. One option is .NET Remoting.