.NET Core CLI

Introduction

The .NET Core command-line interface (CLI) is a cross-platform for developing, building, running, and publishing .NET Core applications.

CLI commands

There are some commands which are installed by default:

Command	Description
new	Initialize .NET projects.
restore	Restore dependencies specified in the .NET project.
build	Builds a .NET project.
publish	Publishes a .NET project for deployment (including the runtime).
run	Compiles and immediately executes a .NET project.
test	Runs unit tests using the test runner specified in the project.
pack	Creates a NuGet package.
migrate	Migrates a project.json based project to a msbuild based project
clean	Clean build output(s).
sln	Modify solution (SLN) files.
Project modification commands
add	Add items to the project
remove	Remove items from the project
list	List items in the project
NuGet packages

Now go to cmd command prompt and type dotnet --help and enter.

You will see the below details:

C:\windows\system32>dotnet --help
.NET Core SDK (3.1.101)
Usage: dotnet [runtime-options] [path-to-application] [arguments]
Execute a .NET Core application.
runtime-options:
--additionalprobingpath <path> Path containing probing policy and assemblies to probe for.
--additional-deps <path> Path to additional deps.json file.
--fx-version <version> Version of the installed Shared Framework to use to run the application.
--roll-forward <setting> Roll forward to framework version (LatestPatch, Minor, LatestMinor, Major, LatestMajor, Disable).
path-to-application:
The path to an application .dll file to execute.
Usage: dotnet [sdk-options] [command] [command-options] [arguments]
Execute a .NET Core SDK command.
sdk-options:
-d|--diagnostics Enable diagnostic output.
-h|--help Show command line help.
--info Display .NET Core information.
--list-runtimes Display the installed runtimes.
--list-sdks Display the installed SDKs.
--version Display .NET Core SDK version in use.
SDK commands:
add Add a package or reference to a .NET project.
build Build a .NET project.
build-server Interact with servers started by a build.
clean Clean build outputs of a .NET project.
help Show command line help.
list List project references of a .NET project.
msbuild Run Microsoft Build Engine (MSBuild) commands.
new Create a new .NET project or file.
nuget Provides additional NuGet commands.
pack Create a NuGet package.
publish Publish a .NET project for deployment.
remove Remove a package or reference from a .NET project.
restore Restore dependencies specified in a .NET project.
run Build and run a .NET project output.
sln Modify Visual Studio solution files.
store Store the specified assemblies in the runtime package store.
test Run unit tests using the test runner specified in a .NET project.
tool Install or manage tools that extend the .NET experience.
vstest Run Microsoft Test Engine (VSTest) commands.
Additional commands from bundled tools:
dev-certs Create and manage development certificates.
fsi Start F# Interactive / execute F# scripts.
sql-cache SQL Server cache command-line tools.
user-secrets Manage development user secrets.
watch Start a file watcher that runs a command when files change.
Run 'dotnet [command] --help' for more information on a command.

Now let's do some practical example to create and build a new dotnet core application using dotnet core CLI (command-line interface)

create new application

The dotnet new command creates a .NET Core project as expected in your command prompt, as shown below:

I have given the console project name inside CliDemo

D:\>pushd D:\CliDemo
D:\CliDemo>dotnet new console

The template "Console Application" was created successfully.

Processing post-creation actions...

Running 'dotnet restore' on D:\CliDemo\CliDemo.csproj...

Restore completed in 131.77 ms for D:\CliDemo\CliDemo.csproj.

Restore succeeded.

D:\CliDemo>

See the attached image:

Restore the Nuget package

We can restore all Nuget package, just enter the following command:

dotnet restore

Build a Project

This following command needs to be entered:

dotnet build

You will able to see as shown below:

D:\CliDemo>dotnet build

Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.4.0+e901037fe for .NET Core

Restore completed in 30.14 ms for D:\CliDemo\CliDemo.csproj.

CliDemo -> D:\CliDemo\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\CliDemo.dll

Build succeeded.

0 Warning(s)

0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:01.18

D:\CliDemo>

See the attached image:

Run an application

This following command needs to be entered:

dotnet run

You will be able to see hello world like this:

D:\CliDemo>dotnet run
Hello World!
D:\CliDemo

Note

I have created a console application. But we can create a lot another project as well, for example, class library project, webapl, MVC, WPF, WCF, etc.. as listed below:

Templates	Short name
Console Application	console
Class library	classlib
WPF Application	wpf
Windows Forms (WinForms) Application	winforms
Unit Test Project	mstest
NUnit 3 Test Project	nunit
xUnit Test Project	xunit
Razor Page	page
MVC ViewImports	viewimports
ASP.NET Core Empty	web
ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)	mvc
ASP.NET Core Web App	webapp, razor
ASP.NET Core with Angular	angular
ASP.NET Core with React.js	react
ASP.NET Core with React.js and Redux	reactredux
Razor Class Library	razorclasslib
ASP.NET Core Web API	webapi
ASP.NET Core gRPC Service	grpc

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read the full article.