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:
  1. C:\windows\system32>dotnet --help
  2. .NET Core SDK (3.1.101)
  3. Usage: dotnet [runtime-options] [path-to-application] [arguments]
  5. Execute a .NET Core application.
  7. runtime-options:
  8. --additionalprobingpath <path> Path containing probing policy and assemblies to probe for.
  9. --additional-deps <path> Path to additional deps.json file.
  10. --fx-version <version> Version of the installed Shared Framework to use to run the application.
  11. --roll-forward <setting> Roll forward to framework version (LatestPatch, Minor, LatestMinor, Major, LatestMajor, Disable).
  13. path-to-application:
  14. The path to an application .dll file to execute.
  16. Usage: dotnet [sdk-options] [command] [command-options] [arguments]
  18. Execute a .NET Core SDK command.
  20. sdk-options:
  21. -d|--diagnostics Enable diagnostic output.
  22. -h|--help Show command line help.
  23. --info Display .NET Core information.
  24. --list-runtimes Display the installed runtimes.
  25. --list-sdks Display the installed SDKs.
  26. --version Display .NET Core SDK version in use.
  28. SDK commands:
  29. add Add a package or reference to a .NET project.
  30. build Build a .NET project.
  31. build-server Interact with servers started by a build.
  32. clean Clean build outputs of a .NET project.
  33. help Show command line help.
  34. list List project references of a .NET project.
  35. msbuild Run Microsoft Build Engine (MSBuild) commands.
  36. new Create a new .NET project or file.
  37. nuget Provides additional NuGet commands.
  38. pack Create a NuGet package.
  39. publish Publish a .NET project for deployment.
  40. remove Remove a package or reference from a .NET project.
  41. restore Restore dependencies specified in a .NET project.
  42. run Build and run a .NET project output.
  43. sln Modify Visual Studio solution files.
  44. store Store the specified assemblies in the runtime package store.
  45. test Run unit tests using the test runner specified in a .NET project.
  46. tool Install or manage tools that extend the .NET experience.
  47. vstest Run Microsoft Test Engine (VSTest) commands.
  49. Additional commands from bundled tools:
  50. dev-certs Create and manage development certificates.
  51. fsi Start F# Interactive / execute F# scripts.
  52. sql-cache SQL Server cache command-line tools.
  53. user-secrets Manage development user secrets.
  54. watch Start a file watcher that runs a command when files change.
  56. 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
  1. D:\>pushd D:\CliDemo
  3. 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:
  1. dotnet restore
Build a Project
This following command needs to be entered:
dotnet build
You will able to see as shown below:
  1. D:\CliDemo>dotnet build
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.4.0+e901037fe for .NET Core
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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:
  1. D:\CliDemo>dotnet run
  2. Hello World!
  4. 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.