app.runtimeconfig.json is not optional

According to this documentation Runtime Conifguraiton Files, app.runtimeconfig.json is an optional configuration file. However, it doesn’t look like it’s the case.

Steps to reproduce

I have the following test app:

using System;
namespace test {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
        }
    }
}

Run the following commands in sequence:

dotnet publish cd bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.0\publish del test.runtimeconfig.json dotnet test.dll

Expected behavior

Application writes to console:

Hello World!

Actual behavior

Dotnet executable reports the following error:

A fatal error was encountered. The library ‘hostpolicy.dll’ required to execute the application was not found in 'd:\workspace\test\bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.0\publish'.

Environment data

dotnet --info output:

.NET Command Line Tools (2.0.0)

Product Information:
 Version:            2.0.0
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  cdcd1928c9

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.14393
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.0.0\

Microsoft .NET Core Shared Framework Host

  Version  : 2.0.0
  Build    : e8b8861ac7faf042c87a5c2f9f2d04c98b69f28d

[MeTitus]

I very much thing this issue is still out there.

I have the latest update to VS2017 and without this setting

<GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>true</GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>

the runtimeconfig.json file is not generated.

I have addded runtimeconfig.template.json to the root project, as per https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/9126

and it still does not work. I don’t think you guys could have messed this more even if you wanted.

[onema]

TLDR; If you are getting a Could not find the required '[app-name].runtimeconfig.json' error add the following to the PropertyGroup in your .csproj

<GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>true</GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>

---

The language here is really misleading. If the *runtimeconfig.json why do I have to include the following statement to my *.csproj, but without it, my app doesn’t run?

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.0</TargetFramework>
    <GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>true</GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles> <====?
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Without it, the file is not created and my FDD app doesn’t run and it fails with the following message

"Could not  find the required '[app-name].runtimeconfig.json'.  This file should be present at the root of the deployment package."