How to retrieve code files from dll?

Question

After Publishing the website,now i want to retrieve the code from dll which is hosted because i lost the original code project from the Hard drive Regards, Amol

Vulpes · Answer

Well, there are other disassemblers including this new free one from JetBrains ( http://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler/ ) which is still in its infancy and is unlikely therefore be as advanced as Redgate Reflector at the present time. However, none of them will be able to recover comments or the original local variable names (they'll come up with substitutes) because these are not preserved in the MSIL itself. When a C# application is compiled, local variables are replaced with numbered storage locations and comments are discarded. There's no other way to recover source code apart from this.

Amol · Answer

Is there any other way? Because this looks like not working for me...

Vulpes · Answer

As long as the dll has not been obfuscated, you'll need to use a disassembler to recover the source code. Check out Redgate Reflector ( http://reflector.red-gate.com/download.aspx?TreatAsUpdate=1 ) which, unfortunately, is no longer free. Notice that you won't be able to recover the original local variable names or comments.

How to retrieve code files from dll?

Answers (3)