.Net Assembly Manifest Definition:

Manifest stands for Assemblies. Metadata refers to data about data or machine-readable information about a resource.

MetaData: Metadata is a set of information that indicates how the pieces of an assembly are related to one another and the relationship between them. It provides the relationships and dependencies among the Assembly’s components, as well as version information, scope information, and the Assembly’s security permits.

Metadata for an assembly comprises type definitions, version information, external assembly references, and other specified information.

With Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) code, the Assembly Manifest can be saved in a Portable Executable (PE) file. Using assembly attributes in our code, we may add or alter certain information in the Assembly Manifest. The Assembly Manifest can be stored in either a Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) coded PE file (.exe or.dll) or a standalone PE file that solely contains assembly manifest information.

You can see the manifest information for any managed DLL with ILDasm.

Metadata: The name of each type, its visibility/scope, its base class, the implemented interfaces, methods, and their scope, and each method’s parameters, type’s attributes, and so on are all described in the metadata for the assembly classes, interfaces, enums, structs, and their contained namespaces.

Manifest: The term “manifest” refers to the act of putting something together. Name of the Assembly, its version number, culture, strong name, a list of all files, Type references, and referenced assemblies.

The Assembly’s identity is made up of the assembly name, version number, culture, and strong name information.

The following data is saved in Assembly Manifest:

• The name of the Assembly is specified via a text string.
• The main and minor version numbers, as well as the revision and build numbers, are all included in the version number. These numbers and information are used by the common language runtime to enforce version policy.
• If the Assembly has been given a strong name, the public key from the publisher is required.
• The following is a list of the files included in the Assembly: It keeps track of the hash of each file in the Assembly as well as the file’s name.
• This information is utilized for types exported from the Assembly. The runtime environment uses this data to map a type reference to the declaration and implementation file.
• The list of additional assemblies that are statically referred to by the Assembly is included in the information about referenced assemblies. If the Assembly is strongly named, each of these references contains the name and metadata of the dependent Assembly, as well as the Assembly public key.