Packaging utilities for .NET Core

This repository contains command-line extensions for the .NET Core CLI which make it easy to create deployment packages (such as .zip files, tarballs or installers) for .NET Core applications.

The following commands are already available:

dotnet tarball - Create a .tar.gz file for Linux and OS X
dotnet rpm - Create a CentOS/RedHat Linux installer
dotnet zip - Create a .zip file
dotnet deb - Create a Ubuntu/Debian Linux installer

And these are up next:

dotnet pkg - Create a macOS installer
dotnet choco - Create a Chocolatey package
dotnet msi - Create a Windows Installer (msi) package

Did we miss anything? Feel free to file a feature request, or send a PR!

Installation

First, install the .NET Packaging tools. You don't need to install all tools if you only plan to use one.

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-zip
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-tarball
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-rpm
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-deb

Then, in your project directory, run dotnet {zip|tarball|rpm|deb} install to add the tool to your project:

dotnet zip install
dotnet tarball install
dotnet rpm install
dotnet deb install

Usage

From the command line, run dotnet rpm, dotnet zip or dotnet tarball to create a .rpm, .zip or .tar.gz archive of the published output of your project.

All commands take the following command line arguments:

-r, --runtime: The target runtime to build your project for. For example, win7-x64 or ubuntu.16.10-x64.
-f, --framework: The target framework to build your project for. For example, netcoreapp1.1 or net462.
-c, --configuration: Target configuration. The default for most projects is 'Debug'.
-o, --output: The output directory to place built packages in.
--version-suffix: Defines the value for the $(VersionSuffix) property in the project.
--no-restore: Skip the implicit call to dotnet restore.

All arguments are optional.

Tutorial

Let's create a new console application and package it as a .deb file, so we can install it on our Ubuntu machine:

First, create your console application:

mkdir my-app
cd my-app
dotnet new console

Then, install the dotnet-deb utility:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-deb
dotnet deb install

All set. Let's package your application as a deb package:

dotnet deb

There's now a bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\my-app.1.0.0.deb file wich you can install:

apt-get install bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\my-app.1.0.0.deb

Your application is installed into /usr/share/my-app. Invoke it by running /usr/share/my-app/my-app:

/usr/share/my-app/my-app

Per default a symlink will by created in /usr/local/bin pointing to your application. Therefore it should be in your path and can be invoked just by the application name.

my-app

Creating a Systemd Service

Add a my-app.service file to your project containing at least the following

[Unit]
Description=My awesome app

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/my-app

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Add the my-app.service file to an <ItemGroup> of your .csproj with the following content to make sure that it is installed at the right place.

    <Content Include="my-app.service" CopyToPublishDirectory="PreserveNewest" LinuxFileMode="1755">
      <LinuxPath>/etc/systemd/system/my-app.service</LinuxPath>
    </Content>

Make sure to set the Property <InstallService>true</InstallService> in your .csproj file.

Note

You can invoke the packaging tools manually, using a MSBuild target instead of using the a .NET Core CLI tool: