How and when does ngen.exe work?

Question

I want to know the benefit of pre-JIT compilation (ngen.exe). What is the role of the Native Image Generator (NGen) process and why is it required?

Please provide an example.

Answer 1

For code execution on the .NET platform, the Common Intermediate Language (CIL) representation needs to be translated into machine code. If this happens immediately before execution this is referred to as JIT (Just In Time) compilation. Output of JIT is not persisted so your managed application has to go through JIT for every launch.

Alternatively, you can use pre-compilation to reduce startup overheads related with JIT compilation. NGen performs pre-compilation and keeps the native images in a native image cache. Then applications can run with the native images and may experience faster startup time due to reduced JIT compilation overhead. Initially, NGen was an install-time technology, developers made application installers issue NGen commands to trigger pre-compilation during install time. For more details, check out NGen Revs Up Your Performance with Powerful New Features. This article provides an example application that leverages NGen.

With Windows 8 (.NET 4.5), a new NGen mode: "Auto NGen" has been introduced. Basically, the .NET runtime generates usage logs for managed applications. When the system is idle, an automatic maintenance task runs in the background and generates native images. This way developers no longer have to deal with NGen explicitly. Note that this feature is only enabled for .NET 4.5+ applications that target Window Store or use the GAC. Here's an MSDN page that may be helpful: Creating Native Images

And this is high-level overview of NGen and related technologies: Got a need for speed? .NET applications start faster

Lastly, .NET framework libraries themselves use NGen for better performance. When .NET framework is serviced, some of the native images get invalidated. Then NGen needs to run to re-generate the invalid native images. This is done automatically via the .NET Runtime Optimization service which runs during idle time.

Answer 2

When a .NET compiler compiles C# or VB.NET code it half compiles them and creates CIL code. When you run this half-compiled .NET EXE file the JIT runs in the background and compiles the half CIL code in to full machine language. This mode is termed as normal JIT.

You can also go the other way around saying you do not want runtime compilation by running a full compiled EXE file. This compilation is done by using negen.exe. In this scenario the JIT does not participate at runtime. This is termed as pre-JIT mode.

If you want to see how they affect performance you can see this YouTube video which demonstrates normal-JIT and pre-JIT mode of compilation:

Explain JIT, Ngen.exe, Pre-jit, Normal-Jit and Econo-Jit.? (.NET interview questions)

Answer 3

Per MSDN:

The Native Image Generator (Ngen.exe) is a tool that improves the performance of managed applications. Ngen.exe creates native images, which are files containing compiled processor-specific machine code, and installs them into the native image cache on the local computer. The runtime can use native images from the cache instead of using the just-in-time (JIT) compiler to compile the original assembly.

I have used NGEN in the past during installation so that the software would start up faster.

Answer 4

NGen (Native Image Generator) basically compiles .NET byte code (CIL) into native code for the computer it's running on. The benefit is that given that you're not compiling the code to native every time, you run it or need it, but you do it just once, the application starts and run faster. If you want more information there are plenty of resources out there about the benefits of JIT vs. Ahead of Time Compilation (which is what NGen does).