Have you ever had the need to compare interfaces of two versions of the same framework?
If you have, then ApiChange is a tool for you. It’s open source, powerful and easy to use 
I gave it a spin comparing current trunk version 2.9.2 of Lucene.Net with the latest official release version 2.4.0.
I downloaded ApiChange and ran the following command in a command prompt:
ApiChange.exe -Diff -old C:\Lucene.Net_2_4_0\Lucene.Net.dll -new C:\trunk\Lucene.Net.dll
The output lists all the differences, but here is a summary:
- 23 public types where removed
- 96 public types where added
- 158 public types where changed
Cool little tool with other features such as:
- Diff public types for breaking changes.
- Who uses a method?
- Who uses a type?
- Who uses implements an interface?
- Who references me?
- What format has the binary (32/64, Managed C++, Pure IL, Unmanaged)?
- Search for all event subscribers and unsubscribers.
It’s based on Mono Cecil – a free IL parser, and not reflection as I initial thought. Go check it out…
Anders Lybecker is an chief architect at Avior A/S, a consultancy firm in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He holds a degree in software engineering specializing in software development.
His primary expertise are the Microsoft .Net framework and SQL Server which he has been working with since the start of this century!
He enjoys discussing technical topics, teaching and speaking at conferences. Related posts:
Tags: Apache Lucene, API, Breaking Changes, Lucene