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Is the .so files generated by Xamarin Monodroid (libmonodroid.so and libmonosgen-2.0.so) managed code or native code? From this SO post it appears they are actually .NET IL binaries (not native machine code). An answer even suggested the Xamarin.Android binaries is JIT'ed and can be opened in any .NET decompiler. However, this doesn't seem to work with dotPeak or ILSpy based on my investigation.

However, this other post on another SE site appears to contradict this. It should be noted that they are referring to Android NDK in general. So, should the native library be opened on a .NET decompiler or dissembler such as Hopper and IDA Pro (giving you assembly code)?

Community
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Nederealm
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1 Answers1

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Those files, libmonodroid.so and libmonosgen-2.0.so are native libraries and are the core libs of Mono and Xamarin.Android, these of course are based upon the ABI/ARCH types that you are supporting within your APP.

Xamarin.Android application packages have the same structure and layout as normal Android packages, with the following additions:

  • The application assemblies (containing IL) are stored uncompressed within the assemblies folder.

  • Native libraries containing the Mono runtime are also included and provide a parallel runtime to the Android Runtime (ART) and the bridge to talk from/to MONO <-> ART.

In Xamarin.Android 5.1 and above, you have the option to AOT your assemblies like Xamarin.iOS does always due to Apple's requirement of no JIT/dynimically generated code on iOS. This option for Android is defined in the Packaging Properties and by default is false. So for assemblies that have been AOT'd, machine code based on ABI/ARCH type has been generated and replaced the APPs C# IL.

SushiHangover
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  • How is libmonodroid.so and libmonosgen-2.0.so generated? I have compared arm-to-arm versions of different apps and it appears to be different in terms of size and content. Does this mean that the code it contains are not standard and the library cannot be swapped with different apps? – Nederealm Sep 27 '15 at 04:29
  • That is Xamarin's secret sauce ;-) I would highly believe trying to swap those would be a violation of Xamarin's IP, licensing, terms of service, etc... as the only reason to do that would be to try to defeat licensing or inject malware. Trying to submit those mod'd APPs to Play would be a big NO-NO... – SushiHangover Sep 27 '15 at 04:42