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PublishSingleFile=true does not include Content files

See original GitHub issue

I am working with a (non-web) .NET Core 3.0 console application and I am trying to use PublishSingleFile=true. While the single-file aspect does indeed work (I get one executable file), my application always crashes due to missing appsettings.json files. I’ve tried setting the files to Content/None, Copy Always/Newest. I also tried adding <CopyToPublishDirectory>true</CopyToPublishDirectory> and yet nothing seems to work.

If I create a brand new fresh Web-SDK project, the single file publish works and the content files are dropped right next to the published executable. I tried comparing the starter web project to my console application and I don’t see a difference.

The easiest reproduction I have is to create a blank console application project, add a text file to the project (as content or none) and then publish with the PublishSingleFile=true. The output does not contain the content files.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="MyContentFile.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <CopyToPublishDirectory>Always</CopyToPublishDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Is this supposed to work for non-Web projects?

.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json): Version: 3.0.100 Commit: 04339c3a26

Runtime Environment: OS Name: Windows OS Version: 10.0.18362 OS Platform: Windows RID: win10-x64 Base Path: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.0.100\

Host (useful for support): Version: 3.0.0 Commit: 95a0a61858

.NET Core SDKs installed: 3.0.100-rc1-014190 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 3.0.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed: Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App] Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App] Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 4 years ago
Comments:5 (3 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

1reaction

swaroop-sridharcommented, Oct 21, 2019

Hi @pinkfloydx33 for in the case of PublishSingleFile all published content is bundled into the single-file. If we need files to be left behind in the publish directory, we need to set the ExcludeFromSingleFile property. In your example:

    <Content Include="MyContentFile.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <CopyToPublishDirectory>Always</CopyToPublishDirectory>
     <ExcludeFromSingleFile>true</ExcludeFromSingleFile> 
    </Content>

For more details, please see: https://github.com/dotnet/designs/blob/master/accepted/single-file/design.md#build-system-interface

Dup of https://github.com/dotnet/core-setup/issues/7738

0reactions

mohamedhamza7commented, Jul 4, 2021

Dears, Is there is a way to excluded Package Reference DLLs from being bundled in single file application? I am working on WPF application .NET 5.0

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