Easy way to modify IL code

Sometimes I try to write a little bit of IL code or modify bits and pieces here and there (specially modify IL generated from say C# code).

The problem is writing up the complete IL that compiles into an exe is a pain (specially because my usage is to tweak them). To work around this I use the following flow which I thought I'd share

1. Write C# code that meets the need
2. Build it
3. Disassemble the exe by using the following command
   ildasm /out=file.il My.exe 
4. Tweak the IL inside the file.il file
5. Assemble it back again with
   ilasm file.il

the neat part is the /out parameter which makes ildasm dump a single IL for the entire code. At the beginning I used to try patching the code up by copy-pasting from ILDASM UI which show separate IL code for every method :(

• Anonymous
  July 30, 2007
  PingBack from http://learningdotnet.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/playing-with-il-code/

• Anonymous
  August 01, 2007
  Sir, I found in a msdn blog , a tool just to incorporate the IL codes into the C# file , while COMPILING. http://blogs.msdn.com/jmstall/archive/2005/02/21/377806.aspx refer this , interesting clever implementation, but will work only above net 2003.

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2007
  You should take a look at Cecil: http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil In their own words: "In simple English, with Cecil, you can load existing managed assemblies, browse all the contained types, modify them on the fly and save back to the disk the modified assembly."