Dotnet CLI The command line tool for ASP.NET Core

The dotnet CLI is a command-line interface (CLI) is a new tool for developing the .NET application. It is a cross-platform tool and can be used in Windows, MAC or Linux. In this tutorial, we will learn how to use .NET Cli create a simple ASP.NET Core application

Dotnet CLI download

The Dot Net CLI is installed as part of the Net Core SDK. You can download the Net Core SDK from this link

The CLI installs side by side manner. So multiple versions of CLI Tools can be installed and used

Using Dotnet CLI

The syntax of Dotnet CLI consists of three parts. The driver, the “verb”, and the “arguments”

dotnet [verb] [arguments]

The driver is named “dotnet”

The “verb” is the command that you want to execute. The command performs an action

The “arguments” are passed to the commands invoked

Commonly used Commands

Here are some of the commonly used commands for the dotnet

Command	Description
new	Creates a new project, configuration file, or solution based on the specified template.
restore	Restores the dependencies and tools of a project.
build	Builds a project and all of its dependencies.
publish	Packs the application and its dependencies into a folder for deployment to a hosting system.
run	Runs source code without any explicit compile or launch commands.
test	.NET test driver used to execute unit tests.
vstest	Runs tests from the specified files.
pack	Packs the code into a NuGet package.
migrate	Migrates a Preview 2 .NET Core project to a .NET Core SDK 1.0 project.
clean	Cleans the output of a project.
sln	Modifies a .NET Core solution file.
help	Shows more detailed documentation online for the specified command.
store	Stores the specified assemblies in the runtime package store.

Creating a New ASP.NET Core project using dotnet CLI

Open the command prompt or Windows Powershell and create a Folder named “HelloWorld”

Dotnet new

dotnet new command is used to create the new project. The partial syntax is as follows

Where

TEMPLATE

The template to instantiate when the command is invoked

–force

Forces content to be generated even if it would change existing files. This is required when the output directory already contains a project.

-i|–install <PATH|NUGET_ID>

Installs a source or template pack from the PATH or NUGET_ID provided.

-l|–list

Lists templates containing the specified name. If invoked for the dotnet new command, it lists the possible templates available for the given directory. For example, if the directory already contains a project, it doesn’t list all project templates.

-lang|–language {C#|F#|VB}

The language of the template to create. The language accepted varies by the template (see defaults in the arguments section). Not valid for some templates.

-n|–name <OUTPUT_NAME>

The name for the created output. If no name is specified, the name of the current directory is used.

-o|–output <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>

Location to place the generated output. The default is the current directory.

-h|–help

Prints out help for the command

The complete list of options for dotnet new is available here

Create a New Project using dotnet new

The following command creates a new dotnet project using the TEMPLATE

You can find out the list of template using

List of Templates

Template	Description
console	Console Application
classlib	Class library
mstest	Unit Test Project
xunit	xUnit Test Project
web	ASP.NET Core Empty
mvc	ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)
razor	ASP.NET Core Web App
angular	ASP.NET Core with Angular
react	ASP.NET Core with React.js
reactredux	ASP.NET Core with React.js and Redux
webapi	ASP.NET Core Web API

To create an empty web application use the template web

Restoring the Dependencies with dotnet restore

Once we created the new project, we have to download the dependencies. This is done using the restore command

use –help to get help

Running the Application with dotnet run

Use dotnet run to start the application

Open localhost:5000/ in the browser and you should be able to see “Hello World”

Conclusion

We learned how to make use of dotnet CLI ( command-line interface). This tool is useful in MAC /Linux where IDE Like Visual studio is not available.