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dotnet publish command
The dotnet publish command publishes a .NET project or solution to a directory.
04/04/2024

dotnet publish

This article applies to: ✔️ .NET Core 3.1 SDK and later versions

Name

dotnet publish - Publishes the application and its dependencies to a folder for deployment to a hosting system.

Synopsis

dotnet publish [<PROJECT>|<SOLUTION>] [-a|--arch <ARCHITECTURE>]
    [--artifacts-path <ARTIFACTS_DIR>]
    [-c|--configuration <CONFIGURATION>] [--disable-build-servers]
    [-f|--framework <FRAMEWORK>] [--force] [--interactive]
    [--manifest <PATH_TO_MANIFEST_FILE>] [--no-build] [--no-dependencies]
    [--no-restore] [--nologo] [-o|--output <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>]
    [--os <OS>] [-r|--runtime <RUNTIME_IDENTIFIER>]
    [--sc|--self-contained [true|false]] [--no-self-contained]
    [-s|--source <SOURCE>] [--tl:[auto|on|off]]
    [--use-current-runtime, --ucr [true|false]]
    [-v|--verbosity <LEVEL>] [--version-suffix <VERSION_SUFFIX>]

dotnet publish -h|--help

Description

dotnet publish compiles the application, reads through its dependencies specified in the project file, and publishes the resulting set of files to a directory. The output includes the following assets:

  • Intermediate Language (IL) code in an assembly with a dll extension.
  • A .deps.json file that includes all of the dependencies of the project.
  • A .runtimeconfig.json file that specifies the shared runtime that the application expects, as well as other configuration options for the runtime (for example, garbage collection type).
  • The application's dependencies, which are copied from the NuGet cache into the output folder.

The dotnet publish command's output is ready for deployment to a hosting system (for example, a server, PC, Mac, laptop) for execution. It's the only officially supported way to prepare the application for deployment. Depending on the type of deployment that the project specifies, the hosting system may or may not have the .NET shared runtime installed on it. For more information, see Publish .NET apps with the .NET CLI.

Implicit restore

[!INCLUDEdotnet restore note]

MSBuild

The dotnet publish command calls MSBuild, which invokes the Publish target. If the IsPublishable property is set to false for a particular project, the Publish target can't be invoked, and the dotnet publish command only runs the implicit dotnet restore on the project.

Any parameters passed to dotnet publish are passed to MSBuild. The -c and -o parameters map to MSBuild's Configuration and PublishDir properties, respectively.

The dotnet publish command accepts MSBuild options, such as -p for setting properties and -l to define a logger. For example, you can set an MSBuild property by using the format: -p:<NAME>=<VALUE>.

.pubxml files

You can also set publish-related properties by referring to a .pubxml file. For example:

dotnet publish -p:PublishProfile=FolderProfile

The preceding example uses the FolderProfile.pubxml file that is found in the <project_folder>/Properties/PublishProfiles folder. If you specify a path and file extension when setting the PublishProfile property, they're ignored. MSBuild by default looks in the Properties/PublishProfiles folder and assumes the pubxml file extension. To specify the path and filename including extension, set the PublishProfileFullPath property instead of the PublishProfile property.

In the .pubxml file:

  • PublishUrl is used by Visual Studio to denote the Publish target.
  • PublishDir is used by the CLI to denote the Publish target.

If you want the scenario to work in all places, you can initialize both these properties to the same value in the .pubxml file. When GitHub issue dotnet/sdk#20931 is resolved, only one of these properties will need to be set.

Some properties in the .pubxml file are honored only by Visual Studio and have no effect on dotnet publish. We're working to bring the CLI more into alignment with Visual Studio's behavior. But some properties will never be used by the CLI. The CLI and Visual Studio both do the packaging aspect of publishing, and dotnet/sdk#29817 plans to add support for more properties related to that. But the CLI doesn't do the deployment automation aspect of publishing, and properties related to that aren't supported. The most notable .pubxml properties that aren't supported by dotnet publish are the following ones that impact the build:

  • LastUsedBuildConfiguration
  • Configuration
  • Platform
  • LastUsedPlatform
  • TargetFramework
  • TargetFrameworks
  • RuntimeIdentifier
  • RuntimeIdentifiers

MSBuild properties

The following MSBuild properties change the output of dotnet publish.

  • PublishReadyToRun

    Compiles application assemblies as ReadyToRun (R2R) format. R2R is a form of ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. For more information, see ReadyToRun images.

    To see warnings about missing dependencies that could cause runtime failures, use PublishReadyToRunShowWarnings=true.

    We recommend that you specify PublishReadyToRun in a publish profile rather than on the command line.

  • PublishSingleFile

    Packages the app into a platform-specific single-file executable. For more information about single-file publishing, see the single-file bundler design document.

    We recommend that you specify this option in the project file rather than on the command line.

  • PublishTrimmed

    Trims unused libraries to reduce the deployment size of an app when publishing a self-contained executable. For more information, see Trim self-contained deployments and executables. Available since .NET 6 SDK.

    We recommend that you specify this option in the project file rather than on the command line.

For more information, see the following resources:

[!INCLUDE cli-advertising-manifests]

Arguments

  • PROJECT|SOLUTION

    The project or solution to publish.

    • PROJECT is the path and filename of a C#, F#, or Visual Basic project file, or the path to a directory that contains a C#, F#, or Visual Basic project file. If the directory is not specified, it defaults to the current directory.

    • SOLUTION is the path and filename of a solution file (.sln extension), or the path to a directory that contains a solution file. If the directory is not specified, it defaults to the current directory.

Options

[!INCLUDE arch]

[!INCLUDE artifacts-path]

[!INCLUDE configuration]

[!INCLUDE disable-build-servers]

  • -f|--framework <FRAMEWORK>

    Publishes the application for the specified target framework. You must specify the target framework in the project file.

  • --force

    Forces all dependencies to be resolved even if the last restore was successful. Specifying this flag is the same as deleting the project.assets.json file.

[!INCLUDE help]

[!INCLUDE interactive]

  • --manifest <PATH_TO_MANIFEST_FILE>

    Specifies one or several target manifests to use to trim the set of packages published with the app. The manifest file is part of the output of the dotnet store command. To specify multiple manifests, add a --manifest option for each manifest.

  • --no-build

    Doesn't build the project before publishing. It also implicitly sets the --no-restore flag.

  • --no-dependencies

    Ignores project-to-project references and only restores the root project.

  • --nologo

    Doesn't display the startup banner or the copyright message.

  • --no-restore

    Doesn't execute an implicit restore when running the command.

  • -o|--output <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>

    Specifies the path for the output directory.

    If not specified, it defaults to [project_file_folder]/bin/[configuration]/[framework]/publish/ for a framework-dependent executable and cross-platform binaries. It defaults to [project_file_folder]/bin/[configuration]/[framework]/[runtime]/publish/ for a self-contained executable.

    In a web project, if the output folder is in the project folder, successive dotnet publish commands result in nested output folders. For example, if the project folder is myproject, and the publish output folder is myproject/publish, and you run dotnet publish twice, the second run puts content files such as .config and .json files in myproject/publish/publish. To avoid nesting publish folders, specify a publish folder that isn't directly under the project folder, or exclude the publish folder from the project. To exclude a publish folder named publishoutput, add the following element to a PropertyGroup element in the .csproj file:

    <DefaultItemExcludes>$(DefaultItemExcludes);publishoutput**</DefaultItemExcludes>

    • .NET 7.0.200 SDK and later

      If you specify the --output option when running this command on a solution, the CLI will emit a warning (an error in 7.0.200) due to the unclear semantics of the output path. The --output option is disallowed because all outputs of all built projects would be copied into the specified directory, which isn't compatible with multi-targeted projects, as well as projects that have different versions of direct and transitive dependencies. For more information, see Solution-level --output option no longer valid for build-related commands.

    • .NET Core 3.x SDK and later

      If you specify a relative path when publishing a project, the generated output directory is relative to the current working directory, not to the project file location.

      If you specify a relative path when publishing a solution, all output for all projects goes into the specified folder relative to the current working directory. To make publish output go to separate folders for each project, specify a relative path by using the msbuild PublishDir property instead of the --output option. For example, dotnet publish -p:PublishDir=.\publish sends publish output for each project to a publish folder under the folder that contains the project file.

    • .NET Core 2.x SDK

      If you specify a relative path when publishing a project, the generated output directory is relative to the project file location, not to the current working directory.

      If you specify a relative path when publishing a solution, each project's output goes into a separate folder relative to the project file location. If you specify an absolute path when publishing a solution, all publish output for all projects goes into the specified folder.

[!INCLUDE os]

  • --sc|--self-contained [true|false]

    Publishes the .NET runtime with your application so the runtime doesn't need to be installed on the target machine. Default is true if a runtime identifier is specified and the project is an executable project (not a library project). For more information, see .NET application publishing and Publish .NET apps with the .NET CLI.

    If this option is used without specifying true or false, the default is true. In that case, don't put the solution or project argument immediately after --self-contained, because true or false is expected in that position.

  • --no-self-contained

    Equivalent to --self-contained false.

  • --source <SOURCE>

    The URI of the NuGet package source to use during the restore operation.

  • -r|--runtime <RUNTIME_IDENTIFIER>

    Publishes the application for a given runtime. For a list of Runtime Identifiers (RIDs), see the RID catalog. For more information, see .NET application publishing and Publish .NET apps with the .NET CLI. If you use this option, use --self-contained or --no-self-contained also.

[!INCLUDE tl]

  • --use-current-runtime, --ucr [true|false]

    Sets the RuntimeIdentifier to a platform portable RuntimeIdentifier based on the one of your machine. This happens implicitly with properties that require a RuntimeIdentifier, such as SelfContained, PublishAot, PublishSelfContained, PublishSingleFile, and PublishReadyToRun. If the property is set to false, that implicit resolution will no longer occur.

[!INCLUDE verbosity]

  • --version-suffix <VERSION_SUFFIX>

    Defines the version suffix to replace the asterisk (*) in the version field of the project file.

Examples

  • Create a framework-dependent cross-platform binary for the project in the current directory:

    dotnet publish

    Starting with .NET Core 3.0 SDK, this example also creates a framework-dependent executable for the current platform.

  • Create a self-contained executable for the project in the current directory, for a specific runtime:

    dotnet publish --runtime osx-x64

    The RID must be in the project file.

  • Create a framework-dependent executable for the project in the current directory, for a specific platform:

    dotnet publish --runtime osx-x64 --self-contained false

    The RID must be in the project file. This example applies to .NET Core 3.0 SDK and later versions.

  • Publish the project in the current directory, for a specific runtime and target framework:

    dotnet publish --framework net8.0 --runtime osx-x64

  • Publish the specified project file:

    dotnet publish ~/projects/app1/app1.csproj

  • Publish the current application but don't restore project-to-project (P2P) references, just the root project during the restore operation:

    dotnet publish --no-dependencies

See also