Vanara

This project contains various .NET assemblies that contain P/Invoke functions, interfaces, enums and structures from Windows libraries. Each assembly is associated with one or a few tightly related libraries. For example, Shlwapi.dll has all the exported functions from shlwapi.lib; Kernel32.dll has all for both kernel32.lib and kernelbase.lib.

All assemblies are available via NuGet and provide builds against .NET 4.5, 4.8, 5.0, 6.0, .NET Standard 2.0, Core 3.1 and support SourceLink. Extensions are available for WinForms, WPF, and UWP projects. If you need support for other .NET versions, look to versions 3.3.15 and earlier.

This project releases new versions every few weeks after sufficient testing. New releases are cataloged, along with release notes, in the Releases section and all NuGet packages are published to nuget.org. Each GitHub push triggers an AppVeyor build. The owners thank them for the free Open-Source account! The status of that build is in the header of this page. The NuGet packages from those builds are available for test purposes on AppVeyor's project NuGet source at https://ci.appveyor.com/nuget/vanara-prerelease.

Use

1. Look for the function you need in Microsoft documentation. Note which library or DLL the function is in.
2. Confirm the Vanara library exists and has your function by looking at the Supported Libraries table below. Clicking on the Assembly link will take you to a drill down of that assembly's coverage. Find your function and if there is a matching implementation it will appear to the right. You can also use GitHub's project search (upper left of page) to search for your function, method or constant. Make sure to select "In this repository".
3. Add the assembly to your project via NuGet.
4. To use the function, you can:
   1. Call it directly var bret = Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32.GetComputerName(sb, ref sbSz);
   2. Under C# 6.0 and later, use a static using directive and call it:

   using static Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32;
   
   var bret = GetComputerName(sb, ref sbSz);
   

5. In some cases there is a corresponding helper/wrapper class in one of the Supporting Assemblies, especially for Security, System Services, Forms and Shell. Go to their library page (click on link in section) and look through the classes included in each library.

Design Concepts

• All functions that are imported from a single DLL should be placed into a single assembly that is named after the DLL.
  • (e.g. The assembly Vanara.PInvoke.Gdi32.dll hosts all functions and supporting enumerations, constants and structures that are exported from gdi32.dll in the system directory.)
• Any structure or macro or enumeration (no function) that is used by many libraries is put into either Vanara.Core or Vanara.PInvoke.Shared.
  • (e.g. The macro HIWORD and the structure SIZE are both in Vanara.PInvoke.Shared and classes to simplify interop calls and native memory management are in Vanara.Core.)
• Inside a project, all constructs are contained in a file named after the header file (*.h) in which they are defined in the Windows API.
  • (e.g. In the Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32 project directory, you'll find a FileApi.cs, a WinBase.cs and a WinNT.cs file representing fileapi.h, winbase.h and winnt.h respectively.)
• Where the direct interpretation of a structure or function leads to memory leaks or misuse, I have tried to simplify its use.
• Where a structure is always passed by reference and where that structure needs to clean up memory allocations, I have changed the structure to a class implementing IDisposable.
• Wherever possible, all handles have been turned into SafeHandle derivatives named after the Windows API handle. If those handles require a call to a function to release/close/destroy, a derived SafeHANDLE exists that performs that function on disposal.
  • e.g. HTOKEN is defined. SafeHTOKEN builds upon that handle with an automated release calling CloseHandle.
• Wherever possible, all functions that allocate memory that is to be freed by the caller use a safe memory handle.
• All PInvoke calls are in assemblies prefixed by Vanara.PInvoke.
• If a structure is to passed into a function as a constant, that structure is marshaled using the in statement which will pass the structure by reference without requiring the ref keyword.
  • Windows API: BOOL MapDialogRect(HWND hDlg, LPRECT lpRect)
  • Vanara: bool MapDialogRect(HWND hDlg, in RECT lpRect);
• If there are classes or extensions that make use of the PInvoke calls, they are in wrapper assemblies prefixed by Vanara and then followed by a logical name for the functionality. Today, those are Core, Security, SystemServices, Windows.Forms and Windows.Shell.

Supported Libraries

Library/DLL	Assembly	Coverage	NuGet Link
aclui.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.AclUI
advapi32.dll, secur32.dll, authz.dll, sspicli.dll, schannel.dll, tdh.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Security
amsi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.AMSI
avicap32.dll, avifil32.dll, msacm32.dll, msvfw32.dll, winmm.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Multimedia
avrt.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Avrt
cabinet.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Cabinet
CfgMgr32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.CfgMgr32
cimfs.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.CimFs
CldApi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.CldApi
clfsw32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.ClfsW32
comctl32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.ComCtl32
ComDlg32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.ComDlg32
credui.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.CredUI
crypt32.dll, bcrypt.dll, ncrypt.dll, tokenbinding.dll, cryptui.dll, cryptnet.dll, cryptdlg.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Cryptography
d2d1.dll, dxgi.dll, dwrite.dll, windowscodecs.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Graphics
davclnt.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.DavClnt
DbgHelp.dll, ImageHlp.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.DbgHelp
Dhcpcsvc6.dll, Dhcpcsvc.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Dhcp