.NET - .NET Assemblies

There is no limit to the maximum number of classes that can be contained in a DLL file.

Satellite assemblies are assemblies that are used to deploy language and culture specific resources for an application. In an application, a separate product ID is assigned to each language and a satellite assembly is installed in a language specific sub-directory.

No, versioning is not applicable to private assemblies as these assemblies reside in their individual folders. Versioning can be applied to GAC only.

An assembly metadata describes every data type and member defined in the code. It stores the description of an assembly, such as name, version, culture, public key of an assembly along with the types exported, other assemblies dependent on this assembly, and security permissions needed to run the application. In addition, it stores the description of types, such as the name, visibility, base class, interfaces implemented, and members, such as methods, fields, properties, events, and nested types.

It also stores attributes. Metadata is stored in binary format. Therefore, metadata of an assembly is sharable among applications that execute on various platforms. It can also be exported to other applications to give information about the services and various features of an application.