More Events for Reloading

Hello, I’m trying to build a Plugin System on top of your awesome Library. I currently have the following use cases:

• Download & Start Plugins at runtime
• Upgrade Plugins at runtime
• Stop Plugins at runtime

while downloading, starting and stopping is actually working really nicely, reloading/upgrading has some caveheats.

currently I have uploaded a demo project at github here: https://github.com/schmitch/dotnet-plugin-demo

currently I need to have a Stop method called before reloading my plugin. Unfortunatly I can only call it after the plugin got reloaded.

That is my log output:

Current Time V4: 23.10.2019 12:04:50
Reload Triggered, EventArgs: McMaster.NETCore.Plugins.PluginLoader / McMaster.NETCore.Plugins.PluginLoader
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application is shutting down...
Created plugin instance 'Timestamp Plugin V5'.
Current Time V5: 23.10.2019 12:04:52

How it should be:

Current Time V4: 23.10.2019 12:04:50
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application is shutting down...
Reload Triggered, EventArgs: McMaster.NETCore.Plugins.PluginLoader / McMaster.NETCore.Plugins.PluginLoader
Created plugin instance 'Timestamp Plugin V5'.
Current Time V5: 23.10.2019 12:04:52

Currently I think it would be possible by introducing an event that will be called, before this._context.Unload(); is called. Maybe call it BeforeReload (i.e. Reloaded could also be deprecated in favor of AfterReload, then)?

[dazinator]

In terms of cleanup how about this:

1. As Reload is a public method, you could set up your own file watcher / event to call it, but before you do call Reload, do your “cleanup”. This could take the form:

A) Make sure you call Dispose() on any disposable instances loaded from that assy load context. This is easier if for example you have a DI container responsible for the lifetime of all those types, and then you can just Dispose() that container.

[sgf]

1. As Reload is a public method, you could set up your own file watcher / event to call it, but before you do call Reload, do your “cleanup”. This could take the form:

u are right,i do own file watcher and call the Reload now. thanks for share your idea.