c# - Referencing different versions of the same assembly

Question

If A references assembly B 1.1 and C, and C references B 1.2, how do you avoid assembly conflicts?

I nievely assumed C's references would be encapsulated away and would not cause any problems, but it appears all the dll's are copied to the bin, which is where the problem occurs.

I understand the two ways around this are to use the GAC or assembly bindings? The GAC doesn't seem like the best approach to me, as I don't like assuming dlls will be there, I prefer to reference dlls from a lib directory in my solution.

Where as assembly bindings don't seem robust to me, what if one version of the assembly has functionality that the other doesn't, will this not produce problems?

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In my case its because I'm using a 3rd party dll uses a older version of nHibernate, than I'm using myself.

Answer 1

I've achieved the same results using the GAC in the past, but you should question your reasons for having to reference more than one version and try to avoid it if possible. If you must do it, a binding redirect may help in your case.

Also, have you read this yet?