Introduction to CLI—Metadata and File Format

Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio

Metadata and the File Format

The file format specified by the CLI is an extension of the standard PE (Portable Executable) file. The information required to write a PE file for managed code, and the logical and physical layout of metadata within a file, are described in detail in Chapter 5 of this book, which covers sections 21–24 of Partition II. Chapter 4 of this book provides a road map to the very dense, but important, information in those sections. Chapter 4 also contains a detailed diagram of the metadata tables and an annotated dump of a very small managed PE file, as well as a map of the metadata.

Figure 1-4 Execution Model