How do I find all the type dependecies of a given type in any CLR based language assembly?

Question

I am trying to find all the types that a given type is dependent on, including interfaces, abstract classes, enums, structs, etc. I want to load up an assembly, and print out a list of all the types defined within it, and their dependencies.

So far I have been able to find all the the external types a CLR assembly depends on using Mono.Cecil, e.g.

using System;
using Mono.Cecil;
using System.IO;

FileInfo f = new FileInfo("SomeAssembly.dll");
AssemblyDefinition assemDef = AssemblyFactory.GetAssembly (f.FullName); 
List<TypeReference> trList = new List<TypeReference>();

foreach(TypeReference tr in assemblyDef.MainModule.TypeReferences){
    trList.Add(tr.FullName);
}

This list can also be obtained using the mono disasembler, eg "monodis SomeAssembly.dll --typeref", but this list doesnt seem to include primitives, eg System.Void, System.Int32, etc

I need to treat each type individually, and get all types that a given type depends on, even if the types are defined in the same assembly. Is there any way to do this using Mono.Cecil, or any other project?

I know it can be done by loading the assembly, then iterating over each defined type, then loading the IL of the type and scanning it for references, but I am sure that there is a better way. Ideally it will also work with anonymous inner classes.

It should also work if multiple modules are defined in the same assembly.

Answer 1

AJ, I had the same issue where I needed to traverse the Types in an assembly and I settled on using Mono.Cecil. The way I was able to walk through each Class and if a Property in a Class was not another Class instead of a CLR type was through a recursive function.

    private void BuildTree(ModuleDefinition tempModuleDef , TypeDefinition tempTypeDef, TreeNode rootNode = null)
    {
            AssemblyTypeList.Add(tempTypeDef);

            TreeNode tvTop = new TreeNode(tempTypeDef.Name);

            // list all properties
            foreach (PropertyDefinition tempPropertyDef in tempTypeDef.Properties)
            {
                //Check if the Property Type is actually a POCO in the same Assembly
                if (tempModuleDef.Types.Any(q => q.FullName == tempPropertyDef.PropertyType.FullName))
                {
                    TypeDefinition theType = tempModuleDef.Types.Where( q => q.FullName == tempPropertyDef.PropertyType.FullName)
                                                                .FirstOrDefault();
                    //Recursive Call
                    BuildTree(tempModuleDef, theType, tvTop);

                }

                TreeNode tvProperty = new TreeNode(tempPropertyDef.Name);
                tvTop.Nodes.Add(tvProperty);
            }

            if (rootNode == null)
                tvObjects.Nodes.Add(tvTop);
            else
                rootNode.Nodes.Add(tvTop);

    }

This Function is called by my main Function the gist of which is

      public void Main()
      {
        AssemblyDefinition  assemblyDef = AssemblyDefinition.ReadAssembly(dllname);

        //Populate Tree
        foreach (ModuleDefinition tempModuleDef in assemblyDef.Modules)
        {
            foreach (TypeDefinition tempTypeDef in tempModuleDef.Types)
            {
                BuildTree(tempModuleDef ,tempTypeDef, null);
            }
        }

      }

Answer 2

Have a look at NDepend - it does this, and much more.

-Oisin