Does .NET Core only have "dll" and not exe?

Question

I just tried the quick start of .NET Core on Windows, following the sample, I created a desktop application. What seems a bit weird is the "main" program is compiled into a "dll" and no longer an "exe" like previous C# code.

Does it mean, from now on, .NET Core compiles everything into an "dll", like java compiles everything into a "class", and no longer need the "exe" because .NET Core VM is the sandbox for all .NET Core apps, like JVM?

http://stackoverflow.com/a/30377175/17034 – Hans Passant Jul 15 '16 at 09:28 — Hans Passant, Jul 15 '16 at 09:28

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '16 at 08:21

Yes, exactly. With dotnet core, Microsoft went a step towards Java/Node/etc style of workflow where you can do most things through a command line tool (dotnet.exe).

I think this makes sense because .NET Core dependencies are app-local, so the runtime isn't scattered everywhere arround the file system as with .NET Framework.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 28 '17 at 12:24

2

You can create exe also by publishing the project for Windows OS.

For example (.Net Core 2.0):

dotnet publish -c release -r win7-x64

You need to specify win7-x64 in RuntimeIdentifiers also in the .csproj file

answered Sep 28 '17 at 12:24

Harit Kumar

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Does .NET Core only have "dll" and not exe?

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