What is Global Assembly Cache

Question

What is meant by the term Global Assembly Cache (GAC)?

Answer 1

GAC refers to the central repository (cache) in system in which assemblies are registered to share among several applications which are executed on the local or remote machines. The .NET Framework offers the GAC tool (gacutil.exe utility), that is used to view and change content of the GAC of a system. Adding and removing assemblies to and from the GAC are some of the tasks which are performed by using the gacutil.exe utility. GAC holds multiple versions of same .NET assembly. CLR checks the GAC for a requested assembly before using the information of configuration files.

The gacutil.exe /i <assembly name> - is the command which is used for installing an assembly in the GAC. Users use the Command Prompt of Visual Studio in order to install an assembly in the GAC by using this command.