dotnet-installer/Documentation/developer-guide.md

Developer Guide

Prerequisites

In order to build .NET Command Line Interface, you need the following installed on you machine.

For Windows

1. Visual Studio 2015 with Web Development Tools

• Beta8 is available here and should work: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49442
  • Install WebToolsExtensionsVS14.msi and DotNetVersionManager-x64.msi

2. CMake (available from https://cmake.org/) on the PATH.
3. git (available from http://www.git-scm.com/) on the PATH.

For Linux

1. CMake (available from https://cmake.org/) is required to build the native host corehost. Make sure to add it to the PATH.
2. git (available from http://www.git-scm.com/) on the PATH.
3. clang (available from http://clang.llvm.org) on the PATH.

For OS X

1. Xcode
2. CMake (available from https://cmake.org/) on the PATH.
3. git (available from http://www.git-scm.com/) on the PATH.

Building/Running

1. Run build.cmd or build.sh from the root depending on your OS.
2. Use artifacts/{os}-{arch}/stage2/dotnet to try out the dotnet command. You can also add artifacts/{os}-{arch}/stage2 to the PATH if you want to run dotnet from anywhere.

A simple test

1. cd test\TestApp
2. dotnet run

##Adding a Command

The dotnet CLI considers any executable on the path named dotnet-{commandName} to be a command it can call out to. dotnet publish, for example, is added to the path as an executable called dotnet-publish. To add a new command we must create the executable and then add it to the distribution packages for installation.

0. Create an issue on https://github.com/dotnet/cli and get consensus on the need for and behavior of the command.
1. Add a new project for the command.
2. Add the project to Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.sln
3. Create a Readme.md for the command.
4. Add the project to the build scripts.
5. Add the project to the packaging scripts.

Add a new command project

Start by copying an existing command, like /src/dotnet-new.
Update the Name property in project.json as well, and use the dotnet-{command} syntax here. Make sure to use the System.CommandLine parser so behavior is consistant across commands.

Add a Readme.md

Each command's project root should contain a manpage-style Readme.md that describes the usage of the command. See other commands for reference.

Add project to build scripts

1. Add the project to /scripts/build/build-stage.ps1

• Add the project name to the $Projects list

2. Add the project to /scripts/build/build-stage.sh

• Add the project name to the PROJECTS list

3. run build from the root directory and make sure your project is producing binaries in /artifacts/

Add command to packages

• Update the symlinks property of packaging/debian/debian_config.json to include the new command
• Update the $Projects property in packaging/osx/scripts/postinstall

Things to Know

• Any added commands are usually invoked through dotnet {command}. As a result of this, stdout and stderr are redirected through the driver (dotnet) and buffered by line. As a result of this, child commands should use Console.WriteLine in any cases where they expect output to be written immediately. Any uses of Console.Write should be followed by Console.WriteLine to ensure the output is written.