How to dynamically load and unload a native DLL file?

Question

I have a buggy third-party DLL files that, after some time of execution, starts throwing the access violation exceptions. When that happens I want to reload that DLL file. How do I do that?

Answer 1

Try this

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr LoadLibrary(string libname);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
private static extern bool FreeLibrary(IntPtr hModule);

//Load
IntPtr Handle = LoadLibrary(fileName);
if (Handle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
     int errorCode = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
     throw new Exception(string.Format("Failed to load library (ErrorCode: {0})",errorCode));
}

//Free
if(Handle != IntPtr.Zero)
        FreeLibrary(Handle);

If you want to call functions first you must create delegate that matches this function and then use WinApi GetProcAddress

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
private static extern IntPtr GetProcAddress(IntPtr hModule, string lpProcName); 


IntPtr funcaddr = GetProcAddress(Handle,functionName);
YourFunctionDelegate function = Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(funcaddr,typeof(YourFunctionDelegate )) as YourFunctionDelegate ;
function.Invoke(pass here your parameters);