How to: Unload an Application Domain

When you have finished using an application domain, unload it using the AppDomain.Unload method. The Unload method gracefully shuts down the specified application domain. During the unloading process, no new threads can access the application domain, and all application domain–specific data structures are freed.

Assemblies loaded into the application domain are removed and are no longer available. If an assembly in the application domain is domain-neutral, data for the assembly remains in memory until the entire process is shut down. There is no mechanism to unload a domain-neutral assembly other than shutting down the entire process. There are situations where the request to unload an application domain does not work and results in a CannotUnloadAppDomainException.

The following example creates a new application domain called MyDomain, prints some information to the console, and then unloads the application domain. Note that the code then attempts to print the friendly name of the unloaded application domain to the console. This action generates an exception that is handled by the try/catch statements at the end of the program.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Reflection;

ref class AppDomain2
{
public:
    static void Main()
    {
        Console::WriteLine("Creating new AppDomain.");
        AppDomain^ domain = AppDomain::CreateDomain("MyDomain", nullptr);

        Console::WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain::CurrentDomain->FriendlyName);
        Console::WriteLine("child domain: " + domain->FriendlyName);
        AppDomain::Unload(domain);
        try
        {
            Console::WriteLine();
            Console::WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain::CurrentDomain->FriendlyName);
            // The following statement creates an exception because the domain no longer exists.
            Console::WriteLine("child domain: " + domain->FriendlyName);
        }
        catch (AppDomainUnloadedException^ e)
        {
            Console::WriteLine(e->GetType()->FullName);
            Console::WriteLine("The appdomain MyDomain does not exist.");
        }
    }
};

int main()
{
    AppDomain2::Main();
}

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class AppDomain2
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Creating new AppDomain.");
        AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", null);

        Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName);
        Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName);
        try
        {
            AppDomain.Unload(domain);
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName);
            // The following statement creates an exception because the domain no longer exists.
            Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName);
        }
        catch (AppDomainUnloadedException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.GetType().FullName);
            Console.WriteLine("The appdomain MyDomain does not exist.");
        }
    }
}

Imports System.Reflection

Class AppDomain2
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        Console.WriteLine("Creating new AppDomain.")
        Dim domain As AppDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", Nothing)

        Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName)
        Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName)
        AppDomain.Unload(domain)
        Try
            Console.WriteLine()
            Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName)
            ' The following statement creates an exception because the domain no longer exists.
            Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName)
        Catch e As AppDomainUnloadedException
            Console.WriteLine(e.GetType().FullName)
            Console.WriteLine("The appdomain MyDomain does not exist.")
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

• Programming with Application Domains
• How to: Create an Application Domain
• Using Application Domains