The common language runtime relies on the type-safe execution of application code to help enforce security and isolation mechanisms. Normally, code that is not verifiably type safe cannot run, although you can set security policy to allow the execution of trusted but unverifiable code.

If neither the /md nor /il options are specified, Peverify.exe performs both types of checks. Peverify.exe performs /md checks first. If there are no errors, /il checks are made. If you specify both /md and /il, /il checks are made even if there are errors in the metadata. Thus, if there are no metadata errors, peverify filename is equivalent to peverify filename /md /il.

Peverify.exe performs comprehensive MSIL verification checks based on dataflow analysis plus a list of several hundred rules on valid metadata. For detailed information on the checks Peverify.exe performs, see the "Metadata Validation Specification" and the "MSIL Instruction Set Specification" in the Tools Developers Guide folder in the .NET Framework SDK.

Note that the .NET Framework version 2.0 or later supports verifiable byref returns specified using the following MSIL instructions: dup, ldsflda, ldflda, ldelema, call and unbox.

The following command performs metadata validation checks and MSIL type safety verification checks for methods implemented in the assembly myAssembly.exe.

peverify myAssembly.exe /md /il

Upon successful completion of the above request, Peverify.exe displays the following message.

All classes and methods in myAssembly.exe Verified

The following command performs metadata validation checks and MSIL type safety verification checks for methods implemented in the assembly myAssembly.exe. The tool displays the time required to perform these checks.

peverify myAssembly.exe /md /il /clock

Upon successful completion of the above request, Peverify.exe displays the following message.

All classes and methods in myAssembly.exe Verified
Timing: Total run     320 msec
        MD Val.cycle  40 msec
        MD Val.pure   10 msec
        IL Ver.cycle  270 msec
        IL Ver.pure   230 msec

The following command performs metadata validation checks and MSIL type safety verification checks for methods implemented in the assembly myAssembly.exe. Peverify.exe stops, however, when it reaches the maximum error count of 100. The tool also ignores the specified error codes.

peverify myAssembly.exe /break=100 /ignore=0x12345678,0xABCD1234

The following command produces the same result as the above previous example, but specifies the error codes to ignore in the response file ignoreErrors.rsp.

peverify myAssembly.exe /break=100 /ignore@ignoreErrors.rsp

The response file can contain a comma-separated list of error codes.

0x12345678, 0xABCD1234

Alternatively, the response file can be formatted with one error code per line.

0x12345678
0xABCD1234

Reference

Concepts