Getting started with latest dotnet core using command line not clear

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to any intuitive landing page for dotnet core (ex. github.com/dotnet/cli, dot.net)
2. Following available documentation for command line use on Windows
3. Attempt to use dotnet cli (ex. dotnet --help)

Expected behavior

A command line centric setp of steps to install all necessary prerequisites and installation files (ex. chocolatey…) for the latest stable release of the dotnet cli and a working cli with the correct version reported after install. Ultimately I would like to or expect to be able to update both the cli tools and the .NET Core versions independently from eachother both from the command line. In this case I’m trying to get onto the newer .csproj based support so that I can begin writing .NET core projects that one have to be migrated from project.json.

Actual behavior

A mixed command line, Visual Studio, and manual non command line centric installation steps followed by what seems to be non-current version of .NET CLI tools or .NET Core being used in the environment.

From dot.net

The latest LTS SDK is reported to be .NET Core 1.0.3 SDK but the link downloadds a file called dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview2-003156.exe. The installer says it’s installing .NET 1.0.3 but SDK 1.0.0 Preview 2.

The most Current SDK is reported to be .NET Core 1.1 SDK but the link downloads a file called dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview2-1-003177.exe. The installer mentions that is installing Core 1.1.0 but SDK 1.0.0 Preview 2.1.

From GitHub Readme.md on the default branch rel\1.0.0

The latest version is reported to be Preview 4 with no significant mention of the major.minor version number. A link in this section leads to a set of downloads which for Windows downloads and installer file named dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview4-004233.exe. The installer says it is installing .NET Core 1.0.1 and SDK Preview 4. Again no mention of the SDK major or minor version and unintuitively it seems that we are back on .NET Core 1.0.1 instead of moving forward with .NET Core 1.1.0 as would be expected from prior SDK Preview 2.1.

Later in the Installers and Binaries section it points to what appears to be a latest development build which downloads a file called dotnet-dev-win-x64.latest.exe. Installer still shows that is installing .NET Core 1.0.1 and SDK Preview 5.

From .NET Core installation guide for VS 2015 users.

The guide suggests downloading “.NET Core 1.0.1 tools Preview 2” which links to a file called DotNetCore.1.0.1-VS2015Tools.Preview2.0.3.exe. The installer says it will install .NET Core 1.0.1 and VS 2015 Tooling Preview 2. Is “Tooling” supposed to be the same as SDK Preview 2?

From the .NET Core installation guide for Command line / other

The guide suggests downloading “.NET Core 1.1 SDK” and links to the same file as the “Current” release noted above dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview2-1-003177.exe.

Environment data

dotnet --info output after installing DotNetCore.1.0.1-VS2015Tools.Preview2.0.3.exe, dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview2-1-003177.exe, and dotnet-dev-win-x64.1.0.0-preview4-004233.exe:

.NET Command Line Tools (1.0.0-preview3-004056)

Product Information:
 Version:            1.0.0-preview3-004056
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  ccc4968bc3

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.14393
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x86

Possibly related:

• https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/5009
• https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/5046
• https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/1693

[sophistyx]

Why is this so confusing? Seriously. It’s a total joke. How long has this been in development and yet you can’t get the basic versioning, tooling and even a standard project system in place? Is it any surprise people are moving to Node.js en-masse? I’ve been writing .NET Code since beta in 2001 so it gives me no pleasure saying this but it does give serious concern about your direction.

[jpierson]

@blackdwarf As for global.json I was running this command sans any project/solution (ex. C:\). I double checked that there was no global.json file in the root of where I’m running the command and still the same result.

We are looking into different modalities for acquisition and how to make that experience even more streamlined. Stay tuned! 😃

Awesome! I’m excited to hear about it. I would love to be able to download a new project from GitHub for example and have some base level of the .NET Core tooling download the necessary runtime/dependency pacakges needed to build, run, and package that project all without having to manually download additional .msi files.