When is web.config read?

Question

I am researching an article on the ASP.NET pipeline, but none of the resources that I have reviewed so far adequately explain when the machine level, application level, and possibly even the subtask level, web.config files are read.

Also, most of my reading is misleading me to look for default HTTP handlers, etc. in machine.config , which, apparently, at some point was mysteriously replaced by web.config at the machine level, that is, in the same config wireframe folder as machine.config . This is a lot of articles, etc. So outdated, or was it a very recent change? Or, can I be imaginative and assume that the level of the web.config machine is actually "inherited" from machine.config ?

Answer 1

The most detailed description of how the asp.net configuration files that I know about work on MSDN:

ASP.NET configuration file hierarchy and inheritance

This is written for the .NET 3.5 platform, so the information should be as up-to-date as you probably find. It describes how various configuration files are read and integrated in application runtime settings in some detail.

Answer 2

ASP.NET configuration files work in a hierarchical way (almost the same as in CSS elements).

Configuration inheritance