PowerShell on Linux - How to load \ use .Net assemblies?

Question

Now that PowerShell is open sourced and available on Linux, any one knows how to add .Net assemblies under linux? if at all possible?

I have installed PS on Ubuntu 16.04 as in here and installed Mono as in here.

After running PS on terminal, this line surprisingly works just fine:

add-type -assembly "/usr/lib/mono/4.5-api/System.Web.Extensions.dll"

No errors etc...

Yet when I try to:

$js = New-Object "System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer"

I am getting this error:

new-object : Cannot find type [System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer]: verify that the 
assembly containing this type is loaded.
At line:1 char:10
+ $ps_js = new-object "System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerial ...
+          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidType: (:) [New-Object], PSArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : TypeNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand

Any hints on that one? Is it a bug maybe as powershell on linux is still "alpha"?

BTW - On windows all is working just fine...

Answer 1

PowerShell on Linux is based on CoreCLR while mono is a clone of the CLR / full framework. The assembly you are using is a full framework one and cannot load in CoreCLR since it is based on mscorlib and not System.Runtime.

In a year there will be a workaround (maybe) with the upcoming .NET Standard 2.0.

Json serialization should be native in PowerShell, if not use newtonsoft.json.