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I just come to a small company.
There are more than 500 solutions in different VS.Net versions and even VB 6.0 projects. They share several dll.
Is there a way to map relation between each program? How can I know in advance what solutions references to a DLL and will have an impact if I change this dll solution.
In your situation, I would probably write a few small utility programs that can iterate though your stored source code and list which programs reference which dlls.
For example, in VB6, the .vbp file lists which dlls are used:
Reference=*\G{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}#2.0#0#C:\WINDOWS\system32\stdole2.tlb#OLE Automation
Reference=*\G{420B2830-E718-11CF-893D-00A0C9054228}#1.0#0#C:\WINDOWS\system32\scrrun.dll#Microsoft Scripting Runtime
Reference=*\G{50A7E9B0-70EF-11D1-B75A-00A0C90564FE}#1.0#0#C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll#Microsoft Shell Controls And Automation
In VB.NET, similar information is stored within the .vbproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<COMReference Include="IWshRuntimeLibrary">
<Guid>{F935DC20-1CF0-11D0-ADB9-00C04FD58A0B}</Guid>
<VersionMajor>1</VersionMajor>
<VersionMinor>0</VersionMinor>
<Lcid>0</Lcid>
<WrapperTool>tlbimp</WrapperTool>
<Isolated>False</Isolated>
<EmbedInteropTypes>True</EmbedInteropTypes>
</COMReference>
Where I work it is also common to reference custom dlls from Excel VBA. To find these, you would open the Excel (or other MS Office) files and read the VBA Add-in Model "References" collection and the "Office.COMAddins" collection.
