Is switching app.config at runtime possible?

Question

Is there a way at runtime to switch out an applications app.config (current.config to new.config, file for file). I have a backup/restore process which needs to replace its

Answer 1

Are you able to restart the application when you detect that you need to switch files? If so, it's just a matter of switching the files and restarting. Now, the tricky bit is if .NET keeps the app.config file open while the program is running. I suspect it doesn't, but if the most obviously approach fails, I suggest you have a second application (cfgswitcher.exe) which waits for the process with a PID specified on the command line to terminate, then switches config files and relaunches the original process. Then your app would just need to launch cfgswitcher.exe (passing in its own PID as a command line argument) and terminate.

As I say though, it's worth trying the more obvious approach first.

EDIT: If you can't restart the application (or even part of it in a new AppDomain) then various aspects of app.config (assembly bindings etc) can't be changed. If you're only interested in your own configuration sections changing, then I suggest you store them in a separate config file and reload them whenever you want to.