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Get .NET Core on Windows - Raw Experience

These instructions will lead you through acquiring .NET Core directly via NuGet restore and running a "Hello World" demo on Windows. The instructions use a particular set of directory paths. You'll need to adjust if you want to use a different set.

These instructions are for .NET Core console apps. If you want to try out ASP.NET 5 on top of .NET Core - which is a great idea - check out the ASP.NET 5 instructions.

.NET Core NuGet packages are available on the .NET Core myget feed, which you can more easily view on gallery for the feed.

The preferred approach to acquire .NET Core is via the .NET Core DNX SDK. It's the easiest approach. Alternatively, you can build from source. This "raw" approach falls between the two in difficulty.

NuGet Restore Packages

Given that NuGet is the .NET Core distribution mechanism, you need a packages.config to restore the packages. The following packages.config is the most minimal one you can have for console apps. You will need to add packages if your app needs it Save this XML to c:\coreclr-demo\packages\packages.config.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
  <package id="System.Console" version="4.0.0-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Diagnostics.Contracts" version="4.0.0-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Diagnostics.Debug" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Diagnostics.Tools" version="4.0.0-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Globalization" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.IO" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.IO.FileSystem.Primitives" version="4.0.0-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Reflection" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Runtime" version="4.0.20-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Runtime.Extensions" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Runtime.InteropServices" version="4.0.20-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Text.Encoding" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Text.Encoding.Extensions" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Threading" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="System.Threading.Tasks" version="4.0.10-beta-22713" />
  <package id="Microsoft.NETCore.Runtime.CoreCLR.ConsoleHost-x64" version="1.0.0-beta-22819" />
  <package id="Microsoft.NETCore.Runtime.CoreCLR-x64" version="1.0.0-beta-22819"/>
  <package id="Microsoft.NETCore.Runtime.ApiSets-x64" version="1.0.0-beta-22819" /><!-- only required on Windows 7 -->
</packages>

You will need to update the version numbers to acquire later versions of the NuGet packages. If you do, you'll need to update the copy commands later in the instructions to reflect these changes. NuGet supports wildcard versions, such as version="4.0.0-beta-*, which can be helpful.

Download the NuGet client if you don't already have it in your path. You can grab it from: https://nuget.org/nuget.exe. Save it to c:\coreclr-demo.

You need to restore the packages to the packages directory.

C:\coreclr-demo> nuget restore packages\packages.config -Source https://www.myget.org/F/dotnet-core/ -PackagesDirectory packages

Write your App

You need a Hello World application to run. You can write your own, if you'd like. Here's a very simple one:

using System;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main (string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, Windows");
        Console.WriteLine("Love from CoreCLR.");
    }
}

Another Option: Some people on the .NET Core team are partial to a demo console app on corefxlab repo which will print a picture for you. To try it, download corefxlab demo's HelloWorld.cs to C:\coreclr-demo.

Compile your App

You need to build your app with csc, the .NET Framework C# compiler. It may be easier to do this step within the "Developer Command Prompt for VS2013", if csc is not in your path. You need to pass references to the reference assemblies you restored using NuGet in order to compile the app against the .NET Core surface area:

C:\coreclr-demo> md app

C:\coreclr-demo> csc /nostdlib /noconfig /r:packages\System.Runtime.4.0.20-beta-22713\ref\any\System.Runtime.dll  /r:packages\System.Console.4.0.0-beta-22713\ref\any\System.Console.dll /out:app/HelloWorld.dll HelloWorld.cs

It might seem odd, but this command compiles your app to a DLL. That's intended.

Prepare the demo

You need to copy the NuGet package assemblies over to the app folder. You need to run a few commands, including a little batch magic.

C:\coreclr-demo> for /r packages %k in (*.dll) do echo "%k" | findstr "\lib\any\ \lib\netcore50\ \lib\any~win\\" && copy /Y "%k" app

C:\coreclr-demo> copy packages\Microsoft.NETCore.Runtime.CoreCLR.ConsoleHost-x64.1.0.0-beta-22819\native\win\x64\CoreConsole.exe app\HelloWorld.exe

This last step might be a bit surprising, copying CoreConsole.exe to MyApp.exe, in this case HelloWorld.exe. This is closely related to compiling the app, in the instructions above, to MyApp.dll, in this case to HelloWorld.dll.

We've grown very fond of creating and using managed EXEs that don't require a separate launcher with the .NET Framework on Windows. We wanted the same experience for .NET Core. To enable the experience, we created a launcher that expects a managed assembly of the same name, compiled with a static main method. As a case in point, if you run CoreConsole.exe without renaming it, it will expect a CoreConsole.dll. The renaming step, which you see above, needs to match the main assembly, compiled as a DLL, and you get an experience that feels launcher-less.

Lastly, if you're a Windows 7 user, you'll need to copy over some API DLLS:

C:\coreclr-demo> copy packages\Microsoft.NETCore.Runtime.ApiSets-x64.1.0.0-beta-22819\native\x64\*.dll app

Run the demo

You're ready to run Hello World!

C:\coreclr-demo> app\HelloWorld.exe
Hello, Windows
Love from CoreCLR.

Thanks for trying out CoreCLR. Feel free to try a more interesting demo.