share same dll through different web applications without copying

Question

I have two different asp.net web applications both referencing the same dll e.g. SharedLibrary.dll.

I want to know if there is a way of adding some web.config setting to one of the application's config files to avoid the need to have two copies of the dll lying around.

My [simplified] directory structure is as follows:

\root
     \Admin
           \web.config 
           \Addins
                  \AdminWebAppPage.aspx
                  \bin
                      \AdminWebApp.dll
                      \SharedLibrary.dll  <- this is the duplicated dll (I'd like to remove it from here ideally)
     \Websites
              \MyWebsite
                        \webroot
                                \web.config
                                \MainWebPage.aspx
                                \bin
                                    \MainWebsite.dll
                                    \SharedLibrary.dll

Answer 1

If you register the assembly in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), all your apps can access it without having a copy around. However, from a versioning and deployment perspective, I'd say keeping a per-site copy is preferable.

Clarification: keepin a per-site copy is preferable when the sites are not related. Obviously if a shared library changes, you'd want both the main web site and the admin site to get the updated copy. :-)