Difference between Common Language infrastructure (CLI) and Common Language Runtime(CLR)

CLR and CLI - What is the difference? .net clr command-line-interface I want to know what exactly is the difference between CLR & CLI? From whatever I have read so far, it seems to indicate that CLI is a subset of CLR. But isn't everything in the CLR mandatory? What exactly may be left out of CLR to create a CLI? Share Improve this question Follow asked Jan 26 '09 at 18:04 Naveen 70.8k●4343 gold badges●170170 silver badges●228228 bronze badges edited Aug 26 '18 at 10:11 Litisqe Kumar 2,380●44 gold badges●2424 silver badges●3838 bronze badges 6 Answers order by votes Up vote 77 Down vote Accepted The CLR is Microsoft's implementation of the CLI standard. Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jan 26 '09 at 18:06 Serafina Brocious 29.9k●1111 gold badges●8787 silver badges●112112 bronze badges edited Jan 26 '09 at 18:15 4 It does that too, you just have to set the target architecture to 'liquid'. – Serafina Brocious Jan 26 '09 at 18:11 1 Thanks for the quick answer. So this means at least theoretically we can have a third party implementation of the CLI which can run on different OS and support .NET components similar to JVM? – Naveen Jan 26 '09 at 18:18 1 @Naveen - take a look at mono which is exactly that. – Kev Jan 26 '09 at 18:22 1 According to this stackoverflow.com/questions/9321803/… That claims that Mono implements the CLR. Is that wrong and is it more correct to say Mono implements the CLI, not the CLR? – barlop Jul 20 '14 at 14:11 1 this answer is not really correct... CLR is the implementation of the VES... see the answer below – adjan Jun 6 '17 at 13:40 Add a comment Up vote 54 Down vote CLR is the execution environment in which a .NET application is safely hosted/run. You can see it as .NET's private Operating System that initiates and loads just before a .NET application starts. The CLR takes care of certain essential requirements of any .NET application that otherwise would require lot of deliberate code to be written in order to implement; requirements that are holistic in nature and essential to any kind of application to run in a good, efficient and safe manner [e.g. Handle memory allocation and release it when not required, avoid dangling pointers, avoid type-casting errors etc. ] CLI on the other hand is a specification/set of guidelines that explains how to implement an application execution environment and the nature of generated application code that allows for multiple high-level languages to be used on different computer platforms without being rewritten for specific architectures. CLI is developed by Microsoft and standardized by ISO and ECMA. The CLR is a practical implementation of CLI's VES [Virtual Execution System] section and forms one of the core components of the MS.NET platform In a layman's language, CLI is a recipe while CLR is the cuisine :-) Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jun 24 '12 at 14:54 Rahul Bhatnagar 587●44 silver badges●66 bronze badges edited Jun 25 '12 at 23:22 Note that this says the same thing as Cody Brocious's answer except with some explanation. It is a matter of opinion how much value the explanation provides. References to .Net might not be accurate; it is my understanding that .Net implements more than the CLI standard. – user34660 Nov 14 '17 at 19:30 Add a comment Up vote 16 Down vote The CLR (Common Language Runtime) is Microsoft's implementation of the VES (Virtual Execution System). The VES along with the CTS (Common Type System), the CLS (common language specification) and the metadata specification are all part of the CLI (Common Language Infrastructure) specification. The VES is a standardized virtual machine specification that must be implemented in order to load and execute CIL (Common Intermediate Language) modules (dll and exe). A VES implementation also provide runtime services such as garbage collection and security. ECMA C# and Common Language Infrastructure Standards Share Improve this answer Follow answered Mar 27 '13 at 3:36 xtrem 1,617●1212 silver badges●1313 bronze badges edited May 9 '18 at 7:51 Up vote 0 Down vote CLR is the .net execution environment where all kind of .net applications are run.For instance, when you write your code with C# or another language from the dot NET stack the compiler compiles and converts it into managed module. A managed module is IL (intermediate language) and metadata.Above all, the important point to remember is that whenever you compile your source code, the compiler translates it into managed module. To clarify, this is not a machine code that your processor will execute.In fact, IL is an intermediate language close to assembly language.Similarly, it is also famous as object orientated machine language. Check this article about more detailed explanation: http://alevryustemov.com/programming/common-language-runtime/ Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jul 2 '19 at 9:17 Alev Ryustemov 150●11 silver badge●99 bronze badges Up vote -1 Down vote As answered, CLR is microsoft implementation. The component itself is called C++/CLI in Visual Studio installer but once it's installed, it shows up as CLR. You can got to add remove programs >> Visual Studio 2009, modify installation and add or remove C++/CLI. It is listed like that as shown in screenshot below but again once installed, the project type is called CLR in visual studio. enter image description here Share Improve this answer Follow answered Apr 6 '20 at 1:22 zar 10.1k●1010 gold badges●8080 silver badges●154154 bronze badges C++/CLI is a complete different thing from CLR. One is a language and the other is a VES implementation. – underthevoid Jul 11 '20 at 9:06 Add a comment Up vote -2 Down vote CLR is the complete environment in which CLI ,CTS,CLS works in integration it also incluse garbage collection,memory management ,security,intemediate language for native code... CLI is a specification for the format of executable code, and the runtime environment that can execute that code. Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jun 17 '13 at 4:56 maddy 1 Your Answer Body Add picture