.Net5 executable depends on json files to be able to run

Question

I creaated a sample .NET5 console application. Just a tiny sample creating some console entries.

using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace ConsoleApp21
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello from the sample app creating console lines!");

            while (true)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("line ...");
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
            }

        }
    }
}

The build directory gives me following contents...

• /ref
• ConsoleApp21.exe
• ConsoleApp21.dll
• ConsoleApp21.pdb
• ConsoleApp21.deps.json
• ConsoleApp21.runtimeconfig.dev.json
• ConsoleApp21.runtimeconfig.json

Now if I would like to distribute the app to other users/pcs ...

Of course I want to keep the

• .exe (though I could start the dll directly via the CLI)
• .dll

I know I can remove (or disable the creation of)

• /ref (reference assemblies)
• .pdb (debug symbols)

Testing I could also delete

• .runtimeconfig.dev.json

But why does the application can not run without the 2 json files? It absolutely makes no sense for me to have 2 additional config files.

• .runtimeconfig.json
• .deps.json

Any chances beside self containing builds (which afaik include the whole .NET runtime into the directory) I can run the app only with the .exe and .dll?

Shouldn't the dll know what dependencies it has (deps.json) and find the .NET runtime somehow in a default manner? (I hope I understood the meaning of those two correctly).

Answer 1

You need to add the following line to your project file:

<PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>

and then you need to publish the project, not just compile. It will provide another executable with everything in it. See here for more details.