Is it possible to compile .NET IL code to machine code?

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I would like to distribute my .NET programs without the .NET framework. Is it possible to compile a .NET program to machine code?

Endophyte answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:18 Comment(0)

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Yes, you can precompile using Ngen.exe, however this does not remove the CLR dependence.

You must still ship the IL assemblies as well, the only benefit of Ngen is that your application can start without invoking the JIT, so you get a real fast startup time.

According to CLR Via C#:

Also, assemblies precompiled using Ngen are usually slower than JIT'ed assemblies because the JIT compiler can optimize to the targets machine (32-bit? 64-bit? Special registers? etc), while NGEN will just produce a baseline compilation.

EDIT:

There is some debate on the above info from CLR Via C#, as some say that you are required to run Ngen on the target machine only as part of the install process.

Cockerel answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:23 Comment(8)

Why are ngen assemblies slower? ngen is invoked on the target machine, so that should not actually make a difference. Oh, and ngen is not the actual answer to the question. – Lohrman 26/9, 2008 at 17:41

Ngen is invoked by the developer to precompile the app, not on the target machine. Please read the section on Ngen in CLR Via C#. – Cockerel 26/9, 2008 at 17:49

Jon, that depends. ngen can be invoked by the installation process on the target machine, and as far as I know this is in fact done for various Microsoft products implemented in .NET. – Witchery 26/9, 2008 at 17:50

However, NGen can made into part of the application install process, allowing it to compile to the target machine, I'll edit my post. – Cockerel 26/9, 2008 at 17:52

EDIT to my comment: you're in fact wrong (and so was I), ngen has to be invoked on the target machine. ngen installs a native image in the machine-local GAC! Precompiling on the developer's machine would be useless. – Witchery 26/9, 2008 at 17:56

I guess the most prominent example ngen'ing its files on the target machine is the .NET Framework 2.0 itself - next time you install it somewhere, take a look at the text it displays :) – Lohrman 26/9, 2008 at 18:11

And don't forget paint.NET. When it states it optimizes for your computer during installation, it's using ngen. – Housum 26/9, 2008 at 18:30

Also, NGEN can't take into account the current value of any static variables, where JIT can. We rely on the JIT to actually omit lines of code from the machine instruction based on the value of readonly static variables. – Timothea 5/5, 2009 at 19:42

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Remotesoft has one: Salamander .NET Linker

I don't have any experience with it though.

Lohrman answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:23 Comment(1)

this question has been asked before and again this is the only correct answer. being, it is possible but at a price. – Gard 26/9, 2008 at 17:25

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There are some third party tools that do this, e.g.

Bronnie answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:25 Comment(0)

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Another (expensive and proprietary, licenses start at $1599) product that can do this is Xenocode Postbuild. Haven't used it myself though, with it costing about the gross national product of a small African country and all...

Leaflet answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:40 Comment(0)

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Yes, you can now! Recently Microsoft announced .NET Native, a piece of technology that compiles your application with .NET Native runtime (they call it MRT) into one binary (actually one executable and one dynamic library).

See links: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/04/02/announcing-net-native-preview.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/04/24/dotnetnative-performance.aspx

Lafountain answered 1/5, 2014 at 7:12 Comment(1)

Note that it doesn't support Desktop – Gustav 6/4, 2015 at 2:53

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Is it possible to compile .NET IL code to machine code?

Yes, but the .NET Framework does it for you at runtime (default) or at install time (ngen). Among other reasons, this IL -> machine code is done separately on each install machine so it can be optimized for that particular machine.

I would like to distribute my .NET programs without the .NET framework. Is it possible to compile a .NET program to machine code?

No, for all intents and purposes you cannot do this. The 3rd party workarounds may work in some scenarios, but by then I wouldn't really consider it "managed code" or ".NET" anymore.

Heidt answered 26/9, 2008 at 18:54 Comment(0)

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There is IL2CPU for the compilation part.

Nonrigid answered 10/2, 2009 at 15:35 Comment(1)

I'd love a standalone executable of this compiler! But from what I read it's integrated with VS and no longer produce Windows' executables. – Gustav 6/4, 2015 at 2:54

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I don't think that it is possible. You can make a prejitted assembly but you still need the framework.

Hoseahoseia answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:21 Comment(0)

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I think you should not: That's the task of the JIT compiler.

However, you could use ClickOnce or Windows Installer to deploy it so that the missing framework isn't such a big problem: you could tell the installer to download the Framework and install it.

Plaided answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:24 Comment(1)

Excuse me but just getting started in VBnet. It does seem you do not have to download Framework. At compiling the vbnet project you can include the Framework option. Mine had some errors when deploying but the idea seems to be that way. – Edson 20/3, 2016 at 12:18

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If you just concerned with the size of deploying the Framework, you might read up on this.

Notochord answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:47 Comment(0)

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Look at MONO project: mono command with --aot option. http://www.mono-project.com/AOT

Carthage answered 10/2, 2009 at 17:12 Comment(0)

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I'd always thought it would be cool to compile c# to machine code directly without the CLR dependency though....

Warble answered 26/9, 2008 at 17:44 Comment(0)

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For those using .NET Core or more recent .NET (5+), there is a Self-Contained deployment option, which is described in MSDN as

The output publishing folder contains all components of the app, including the .NET libraries and target runtime. The app is isolated from other .NET apps and doesn't use a locally installed shared runtime. The user of your app isn't required to download and install .NET.

Steps to prepare a self-contained deployment:

Switch the solution configuration from Debug to Release.
Right click on the project in Solution Explorer and select Publish.
Select Folder as the Target and click Next.
Select again Folder as the Specific target and click Next.
In the Location tab, browse your target binaries path and click Finish.
In the Publish tab, click the small pencil icon (Edit Target runtime) at the end of the Target runtime row.
In the Profile settings dialog (displayed below), Select Self-contained from the Deployment mode combobox.
Choose your runtime from the Target runtime combobox.
(Optionally) Specify the output path of the binaries from the Target location combobox.
Click Save.
When you click the Publish button in the Publish tab, your binaries will be created.

There are other deployment options such as Azure, Docker Container Registry etc. but for simplicity I chose the Folder option. Note that the steps and the screenshot belongs to VS 2019.

For more info see Self-Contained Publishing.

Hatband answered 24/4, 2023 at 8:27 Comment(0)

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.NET 7+ supports AOT. For more information, see https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/deploying/native-aot.

Publish Native AOT using the CLI

Add <PublishAot>true</PublishAot> to your project file.

This property enables Native AOT compilation during publish. It also enables dynamic code-usage analysis during build and editing. It's preferable to put this setting in the project file rather than passing it on the command line, since it controls behaviors outside publish.
```
<PropertyGroup>
    <PublishAot>true</PublishAot>
</PropertyGroup>
```
Publish the app for a specific runtime identifier using dotnet publish -r <RID>.

The following example publishes the app for Windows as a Native AOT application on a machine with the required prerequisites installed.

dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release

The following example publishes the app for Linux as a Native AOT application. A Native AOT binary produced on Linux machine is only going to work on same or newer Linux version. For example, Native AOT binary produced on Ubuntu 20.04 is going to run on Ubuntu 20.04 and later, but it isn't going to run on Ubuntu 18.04.

dotnet publish -r linux-arm64 -c Release

The app is available in the publish directory and contains all the code needed to run in it, including a stripped-down version of the coreclr runtime.

Limitations in the .NET Native AOT deployment model

.NET 7

Native AOT is targeted towards console-type apps. Only a limited number of libraries are fully compatible with Native AOT.

.NET 8+

AOT support in .NET 8 is more comprehensive than in .NET 7. However, there are still some limitations. For more information, see Limitations of Native AOT deployment.

Platform/architecture restrictions

The following table shows supported compilation targets.

.NET 7

Platform	Supported architecture
Windows	x64, Arm64
Linux	x64, Arm64

.NET 8+

Platform	Supported architecture	Notes
Windows	x64, Arm64
Linux	x64, Arm64
macOS	x64, Arm64
iOS	Arm64	Experimental support
iOSSimulator	x64, Arm64	Experimental support
tvOS	Arm64	Experimental support
tvOSSimulator	x64, Arm64	Experimental support
MacCatalyst	x64, Arm64	Experimental support
Android	x64, Arm64	Experimental, no built-in Java interop

Response answered 16/12, 2023 at 3:19 Comment(0)

Publish Native AOT using the CLI

Limitations in the .NET Native AOT deployment model

.NET 7

.NET 8+

Platform/architecture restrictions

.NET 7

.NET 8+

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