Improve experience when using PublishAot with unsupported RID

[MichalStrehovsky]

#61231 (comment)

E.g. win-x86, win-arm, linux-arm, osx-x64, all work with .NET, but we current don't support them in NativeAOT. We should make it more obvious that that's the problem.

Also, we should add linux-musl-arm64 to the list of supported RIDs.

Cc @LakshanF

[kamyker]

Using net7.0-rc1 I'm unable to build for unsupported RIDs. With PublishAot=true (and with or without package reference) it says runtime is missing. With no PublishAot and package reference it doesn't compile native code at all. I've heard it works in .net 8 but that's not available using Azure Pipelines that only support main releases https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/releases-index.json

[jkotas]

Using net7.0-rc1 I'm unable to build for unsupported RIDs

This should be fixed in rc2 by dotnet/installer#14464

[kamyker]

Using net7.0-rc1 I'm unable to build for unsupported RIDs

This should be fixed in rc2 by dotnet/installer#14464

Ok thanks, would be nice to add all RIDs in docs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/native-aot/ and https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/main/src/coreclr/nativeaot/docs/compiling.md.

Supported/unsupported wording is a bit confusing, I'd call RIDs that can be compiled but aren't supported 'experimental'.

[kamyker]

Using net7.0-rc1 I'm unable to build for unsupported RIDs

This should be fixed in rc2 by dotnet/installer#14464

In rc2 osx-64x started working but osx-arm64 doesn't. Is it not possible to build in net7? @jkotas

I've tried to reference dotnet8 nuget package but that seems impossible as PublishAot always removes it:
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler; runtime.osx-arm64.Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler" Version="8.0.0-alpha.1.22461.3" />

Gets removed during compilation (and replaced with rc2 ilcompiler):
/Users/runner/.nuget/packages/microsoft.dotnet.ilcompiler/8.0.0-alpha.1.22461.3/build/Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler.SingleEntry.targets(49,5): warning : Delete explicit 'Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler' package reference in your project file. Explicit 'Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler' package reference can run into version errors.

Without PublishAot it doesn't compile native code.

If that's not a bug - is it possible to use alpha net8 in Azure pipelines?

[jkotas]

I've tried to reference dotnet8 nuget package but that seems impossible as PublishAot always removes it:

@agocke @LakshanF Is this going to be fixed by dotnet/sdk#28495 ?

[agocke]

There are a couple questions here, let me pull some of them apart.

1. How can I publish for AOT on OSX in .NET 7?
2. How can I use the latest AOT bits?
3. What about the NuGet packages?

For (1) the answer is: no, you cannot publish using NativeAOT in .NET 7. That's not a supported scenario.

But, as referenced in (2), we will support OSX in .NET 8. To use .NET 8, you'll need to download a .NET 8 SDK. At the moment, we have not publicly shipped a .NET 8 preview. When we do, that will be the recommended path. If you want to live on the bleeding edge, you can download nightlies from https://github.com/dotnet/installer#table.

For (3), how do the Microsoft.NET.ILCompiler packages relate? The intent is that they should provide a similar experience to the SDK, but give you more fine-grained version control, in case there's a specific bug. The packages aren't meant to be a supported experience and aren't meant to substitute for the SDK. In particular, using packages mismatched with the target framework they were built for would not be supported. So, using .NET 8 packages with the .NET 7 SDK to target net7.0 would not be supported.

At the moment it appears that the packages have some strange behavior when interacting with the SDK. I'm not sure of all the issues there, but we'll have to work through them.

Lastly, the change in dotnet/sdk#28495 is intended to improve the experience when building and not actually publishing with AOT. It wouldn't help with using AOT on unsupported platforms.

[kamyker]

(1) the answer is: no, you cannot publish using NativeAOT in .NET 7. That's not a supported scenario.

As I said I can publish osx-64x but not osx-arm64. This comment also says something else: #75264 (comment)

It missed the 7.0 deadline by a lot. However, it is possible to consume the ILCompiler package from NuGet so I think the realistic goal is to make it possible to use that with .NET 7 SDK.

Anyway I've tried dotnet8 sdk and got error:

The PrivateSdkAssemblies ItemGroup is required for _ComputeAssembliesToCompileToNative

Command:

dotnet publish -output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/arm --configuration $(buildConfiguration) -r osx-arm64 /p:NativeLib=Shared /p:SelfContained=true

Using Azure Pipelines Microsoft hosted agent, the newest mac12 that's x64. Is it possible to cross-compile arm64 (x64 works fine)?