VS Code setup guide for C# .NET development

Required software

• Download VS Code

• Download .NET SDK

• Install C# extension by Microsoft (ID: ms-dotnettools.csharp)

• (optional) Install IntelliCode extension by Microsoft (ID: VisualStudioExptTeam.vscodeintellicode)

• (optional) Install vscode-icons extension (ID: vscode-icons-team.vscode-icons)

• (optional) Install GitLens extension (ID: eamodio.gitlens)

• (optional) Install NuGet Package Manager extension (ID: jmrog.vscode-nuget-package-manager)

Setup of a Console App

• Create a new solution

  dotnet new sln -n "SOLUTION_NAME"
  

• Create new Console App project

  dotnet new console -n "PROJECT_NAME"
  

• Create desired library projects

  dotnet new classlib -n "LIBRARY_NAME"
  

• Add each project to the solution

  dotnet sln SOLUTION_NAME.sln add ./PROJECT_NAME/PROJECT_NAME.csproj
  

• Add references betwen projects (if there are any)

  dotnet add PROJECT_NAME/PROJECT_NAME.csproj reference LIBRARY_NAME/LIBRARY_NAME.csproj
  

• Create .gitignore file to exclude output files

  dotnet new gitignore
  

  in case You already commited some of the files that are being excluded, before actually generating gitignore file, you should perform:

  git rm -rf --cached .
  git add .
  

  which will remove and read all of the files with respect to the .gitignore file. That means that this time files won't be tracked by git anymore. Some more detail can be found on Stack Overflow issue regarding that matter.

• Generate assets for build and debug - C# Extension should automatically prompt You whether You want to generate them, but if it does not, You can generate them manually ussing command pallette.

  • open command pallette:

     CTRL + SHIFT + P
    

  • look for:

    .NET Generate Assets for Build and Debug
    

  If an error occurs, especially one that says that OmniSharp is not running (and all attempts to restart it from command pallette fail), some previous version of C# Extension could be installed to solve it. But if that's not the case, or if You want to check different solutions, feel free to check out Stack Overflow issue related to that matter.

  In case of succes, directory with files containing configuration is created

  

Running the app

• To directly run the app, cd into the Project directory in VS Code's integrated terminal and use:

  dotnet run
  

  The project will run directly in the integrated terminal without any additional functionalities like debugger.

• Make use of the Run and Debug Assets generated previously, to benefit for example from debbugging capabilities.

  • Press F5 to run the default selected profile (since the right profile will be the first one, of two we generated, it will be selected by default)
  • Go to Run and Debug side menu and launch .NET Core Launch (console) profile - notice that it's name matches with the name stated in launch.json file that was generated previously.

Adding NuGet Packages to the project

• While being in the Project's directory, use:

  dotnet add package PACKAGE_NAME
  

  to add the latest non-preview version of a package to the Project.

• Insert the reference manually

  • add entry into .csproj file between ItemGroup tags

    <ItemGroup>  
        <PackageReference Include="PACKAGE_NAME" Version="PACKAGE_VERSION" />  
    </ItemGroup>

  • perform

    dotnet restore
    

    to fetch referenced packages

• Use NuGet Package Manager extension

  • open command pallette:

    CTRL + SHIFT + P
    

  • look for:

    NuGet Package Manager: Add Package
    

  • insert desired package name

  • choose the package version

  • select the Project You want to add the NuGet reference to

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References

• .NET CLI Docs

• Microsoft C# with VS guide

• T. Corey's C# with VS guide