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Intro to .NET Core CLI
The .NET Core CLI is a simple, extensible and standalone set of tools for building, managing and otherwise operating on .NET projects. It will or already includes commands such as compilation, NuGet package management and launching a debugger session. It is intended to be fully featured, enabling extensive library and app development functionality appropriate at the command-line. It should provide everything you'd need to develop an app in an SSH session! It is also intended to be a fundamental building block for building finished experiences in tools such as Visual Studio.
Goals:
- Language agnostic - embrace "common language runtime".
- Target agnostic - multi-targets.
- Runtime agnostic.
- Simple extensibility and layering - "you had one job!"
- Cross-platform - support and personality.
- Outside-in philosphy - higher-level tools drive the CLI.
Historical Context - DNX
We've been using DNX for all .NET Core scenarios for nearly two years. It provides a lot of great experiences, but doesn't have great "pay for play" characteristics. DNX is a big leap from building the CoreCLR and CoreFX repos and wanting to build an app with a simple environment. In fact, one of the open source contributors to CoreCLR said: "I can build CoreCLR, but I don't know how to build 'Hello World'." We cannot have that!
.NET Core includes three new components: a set of standalone command-line (CLI) tools, a shared framework and a set of runtime services. These components will replace DNX and are essentially DNX split in three parts.
The DNX services will be offered as a hosting option available to apps. You can opt to use a host that offers one or more of these services, like file change watching or NuGet package servicing. You can also opt to use a shared framework, to ease deployment of dependencies and for performance reasons. Some of this is still being designed and isn't yet implemented.
ASP.NET 5 will transition to the new tools for RC2. This is already in progress. There will be a smooth transition from DNX to these new .NET Core components.
Experience
The CLI tools present the "dotnet" tool as the entry-point tool. It provides higher-level commands, often using multiple tools together to complete a task. It's a convenience wrapper over the other tools, which can also be used directly. "dotnet" isn't magical at all, but a very simple aggregator of other tools.
You can get a sense of using the tools from the examples below.
dotnet restore
dotnet restore restores dependent package from a given NuGet feed (e.g. NuGet.org) for the project in scope.
dotnet run
dotnet run compiles and runs your app with one step. Same as dnx run.
dotnet compile
dotnet compile --native native compiles your app into a single executable file.
dotnet compile compiles your app or library as an IL binary. In the case of an app, compile generates runable assets by copying an executable host to make the IL binary runable. The host relies on a shared framework for dependencies, including a runtime.
Design
More content here.