Are OpenTelemetry .NET packages compatible with GAC for .NET Framework environments?

[anboss]

We are instrumenting several .NET Framework applications using OpenTelemetry .NET in a multi-project solution that still uses packages.config.

We have an internal shared library that references our custom OpenTelemetry wrapper along with dependencies such as:

• OpenTelemetry
• OpenTelemetry.Api
• OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AspNet.TelemetryHttpModule
• OTLP exporter
• instrumentation libraries (e.g., SQL, ASP.NET)
• Microsoft.Extensions.*
• Newtonsoft.Json
• System.Text.Json

Many projects reference this shared library.

Because packages.config does not support transitive dependencies, managing these packages across multiple projects becomes repetitive.

From a runtime/assembly perspective, are OpenTelemetry .NET assemblies:

Strong-named and compatible with the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) for .NET Framework?

Considered supported for deployment through GAC, or is this discouraged for OpenTelemetry packages?

If GAC is not intended for this use case, what is the recommended pattern for sharing OpenTelemetry dependencies across multiple .NET Framework applications that still use packages.config?

I am mainly trying to understand the intended deployment model for OpenTelemetry assemblies in legacy .NET Framework environments, rather than proposing GAC as the preferred solution.

[Kielek]

.NET Auto SIG notes:
your question better fits to the SDK repository so I moved it.

In the context of GAC compatibility - all dependencies required by https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-dotnet-instrumentation for .NET Framework are installed by the installation scripts to the GAC. We do not met any issues related to this stuff.

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SDK perspective
I am not sure if anybody was testing your scenario. I would recommend deep verification for your cases. Probably, the best what you can do is to gradually modernize your solution to modern format. I fully understand that it can be time consuming, but it should be beneficial from the long term perspective.