Trying to host .NET core 2.1 web app in window service creates dll instead of exe

Question

Following the instructions here I:

installed visual studio 2017 preview
installed .NET Core 2.1 RC1
dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.WindowsServices --version 2.1.0-rc1-final

new project ->
select .NET Core on the left ->
select ASP.NET Core Web Application ->
select ASP.NET Core 2.1 on the top ->
select Web Application ->
in program.cs add using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.WindowsServices; ->
in program.cs change Run() to RunAsService() ->
build release ->
in cmd do dotnet publish

I get:

>dotnet publish
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 15.7.177.53362 for .NET Core
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Restoring packages for C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer.csproj...
  Generating MSBuild file C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\obj\VoyDashServer.csproj.nuget.g.props.
  Restore completed in 1.56 sec for C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer.csproj.
  You are working with a preview version of the .NET Core SDK. You can define the SDK version via a global.json file in the current project. More at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=869452
  VoyDashServer -> C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.1\VoyDashServer.dll
  VoyDashServer -> C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.1\VoyDashServer.Views.dll
  VoyDashServer -> C:\Temp\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\VoyDashServer\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.1\publish\

That is the result is a dll and not an exe

What am I doing wrong ?

Camilo, I followed the instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/windows-service?view=aspnetcore-2.0&tabs=aspnetcore2x which are supposed to produce an exe even through it's a .net core web app — kofifus, May 22 '18 at 23:00

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '18 at 01:02

4

In the last step, instead of dotnet publish do

dotnet publish -c Release --self-contained -r win-x64

That will generate the .exe

answered May 23 '18 at 01:02

zaitsman

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I still get a dll :( – kofifus May 23 '18 at 01:45
you will get a dll and an exe? – zaitsman May 23 '18 at 01:48
1

i guess one thing to be mindful of -> this command has to be run against .csproj, not .sln; also, it generates two folders -> `/bin/Release/win-x64/` and `/bin/Release/win-x64/publish`. The exe is only in the second one – zaitsman May 23 '18 at 01:50

Trying to host .NET core 2.1 web app in window service creates dll instead of exe

1 Answers1