Strong Name Utility Produces No Output

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Silent failure of sn -k produces no output file

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Microsoft includes with the .NET Framework utility for generating key pairs called the ".NET Framework Strong Name Utility".

This program can be invoked with a command line like:

     sn -k Siqlkey.snk

This is a command to be executed at the DOS prompt. This command will probably not be in your default DOS path. It may live in a location such as

     c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Bin

However, simply going to that directory to run the utility is not enough. The program may silently fail to produce any output. It might display it's help in response to sn -?, but nothing else will be displayed.

The proper way to run this utility is to use a .NET command window. You get to this special .NET command window by selecting Start | Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 7.0 | Visual Studio.NET Tools | Visual Studio.NET Command Prompt.

You can now run the command to create a .SNK file from that new window.

Other Tips

     [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile?Create("..\\..\\Siqlkey.snk")]

Note this path is relative to your object files release directory.

If you don't notice the fact that no .SNK file is produced, and you attempt to compile your application, you might get Compiler Error CS1548.

This is described as:

• Cryptographic failure while signing assembly 'assembly' — 'reason'
• A failure occurred in a cryptographic function. This indicates a problem with the operating system installation.

Upon trying to build your application, you might also see in the task list:

• Cryptographic failure while signing assembly 'bad version of provider'

Other related errors you might see

   Assembly generation failed -- Referenced assembly 'sampleassembly' does not have a strong name

Highlighting this error in the task list and pressing F1 will take you to Compile Error CS1577 which says that "The assembly-generation part of the compilation failed. See the errors documentation for the alink utility (Al.exe) for more information."

If you look at the Al.exe Tool Errors and Warnings, you'll find that

• This error is issued when you are building an assembly with a strong name and reference an assembly that does not have a strong name.
• If an assembly has a strong name, it can be installed in the global assembly cache. Consequently, referenced assemblies would also need to go into the global assembly cache. Only assemblies with strong names can go into the global assembly cache.

When adding the AssemblyKeyFile?Create directive to a PerlNET?Create program, it should be done with a fully qualified name such as

   [assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyKeyFile?Create("Siqlkey.snk")]

Note that PerlNET?Create while PerlNET?Create uses C# semantics, unlike C#, it references the immediate directory.

Another error you might see at runtime is:

• The located assembly's manifest definition with name 'SiqlPE?Create' does not match the assembly reference.
  • Here are some articles that refer to this:
    • http://blogs.msdn.com/junfeng/archive/2004/03/25/95826.aspx

What is an .SNK file

Some other searches you might try

• CS1548 - 147 results to look through
• ".net" sn "no output" - 664 results to look through
• ".net" "sn -k" "no output" - Only 5 or 6 results to look through

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