Useful .NET CLI (dotnet) commands

 

Commonly used Commands

Here are some of the commonly used commands for the dotnet

Command	Description
new	Creates a new project, configuration file, or solution based on the specified template.
restore	Restores the dependencies and tools of a project.
build	Builds a project and all of its dependencies.
publish	Packs the application and its dependencies into a folder for deployment to a hosting system.
run	Runs source code without any explicit compile or launch commands.
test	.NET test driver used to execute unit tests.
vstest	Runs tests from the specified files.
pack	Packs the code into a NuGet package.
migrate	Migrates a Preview 2 .NET Core project to a .NET Core SDK 1.0 project.
clean	Cleans the output of a project.
sln	Modifies a .NET Core solution file.
help	Shows more detailed documentation online for the specified command.
store	Stores the specified assemblies in the runtime package store.

Creating a New ASP.NET Core project using dotnet CLI

Open the command prompt or Windows Powershell and create a Folder named “HelloWorld”

Dotnet new

dotnet new command is used to create the new project. The partial syntax is as follows

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dotnet new <TEMPLATE> [--force] [-i|--install] [-lang|--language] [-n|--name] [-o|--output]

Where

TEMPLATE

The template to instantiate when the command is invoked

–force

Forces content to be generated even if it would change existing files. This is required when the output directory already contains a project.

-i|–install <PATH|NUGET_ID>

Installs a source or template pack from the PATH or NUGET_ID provided.

-l|–list

Lists templates containing the specified name. If invoked for the dotnet new command, it lists the possible templates available for the given directory. For example, if the directory already contains a project, it doesn’t list all project templates.

-lang|–language {C#|F#|VB}

The language of the template to create. The language accepted varies by the template (see defaults in the arguments section). Not valid for some templates.

-n|–name <OUTPUT_NAME>

The name for the created output. If no name is specified, the name of the current directory is used.

-o|–output <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>

Location to place the generated output. The default is the current directory.

-h|–help

Prints out help for the command

The complete list of options for dotnet new is available here

Create a New Project using dotnet new

The following command creates a new dotnet project using the TEMPLATE

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dotnet new <TEMPLATE>

You can find out the list of template using

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Dotnet new -l

List of Templates

Template	Description
console	Console Application
classlib	Class library
mstest	Unit Test Project
xunit	xUnit Test Project
web	ASP.NET Core Empty
mvc	ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)
razor	ASP.NET Core Web App
angular	ASP.NET Core with Angular
react	ASP.NET Core with React.js
reactredux	ASP.NET Core with React.js and Redux
webapi	ASP.NET Core Web API

To create an empty web application use the template web

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Dotnet new web

Restoring the Dependencies with dotnet restore

Once we created the new project, we have to download the dependencies. This is done using the restore command

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Dotnet restore

use –help to get help

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Dotnet restore --help