Hi Dave,
As for the questions you mentioned:
First off, what is the -v for? It looks like I can call it anything. Does
that mean anything?
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It is used to specify the virtual path in IIS site(in case your web
application is in IIS and do not want to use physical path to reference its
application directory). Of course you can not assign discretionary value
for it.
** if your web application is originally developed through test server, you
should use -p option with physical path to provide the application's
directory path. And here the -v option will represent the virtual path
under the IIS site(you'll deploy it to later).
** if your web application is already hosted in IIS before precompilation,
the -v option just provide the place of its application directory (it
assume that the application is under IIS default site, otherwise you should
use -m to specify IIS metabase path)
Second, once I compile and have created the pre-compiled program - what
files do I sign with my digital ID?
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Do you mean strong-name your precompiled assembly? If so, you can just
provide the strong-name key info (file or container) when you use
aspnet_compiler to precompile your site. e.g.
aspnet_compiler -v virtualPath targetPath -keyfile keyFile.snk -aptca
If you want to sign it after precompilation, you need to make it delaysign,
anyway, the aspnet_compiler.exe tool can handle both precompilation and
strong-name signing.
Here are the MSDN reference which as described detailed on ASP.NET 2.0
Precompilation and the aspnet_compiler tool:
#ASP.NET Compilation Tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229863(VS.80).aspx
#How to: Sign Assemblies for Precompiled Web Sites
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228209.aspx
In addition, ASP.NET team has also shipped an add-on project---Web
Deployment Project that can improve the flexibility of ASP.NET 2.0
PROJECT'S precompilation:
#VS 2005 Web Deployment Projects
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/11/06/429723.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/aa336619.aspx
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Steven Cheng
Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead
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