Assumes .NET 5 or 6. Earlier versions of .NET Core support single file publishing as well, but it’s markedly improved in v5 and v6.
Single file publishing is controlled by three arguments to the dotnet publish command:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| -r <rid> | Runtime Identifier. Specifies which operating system, operating system version, and architecture to target. |
| –self-contained true | Include all dependencies. This removes the need to have the associated .NET runtime installed on the target machine. |
| /p:PublishSingleFile=true | Bundle the output into a single file. |
For example, the command for publishing to a single file, targeting Windows 10 (64-bit), looks like this:
dotnet publish -c Release -r win10-x64 --self-contained true \ /p:PublishSingleFile=true
Targeting other OS/architecture combinations is as simple as replacing the RID value in the command with the RID you want to target.
I’ve tested the following RIDs:
| RID | Operating System | Architecture |
|---|---|---|
| linux-x64 | Linux | 64-bit AMD |
| linux-arm | Linux | 32-bit ARM (This can be used to target Raspberry Pi) |
| osx.10.14-x64 | macOS 10.14 Mojave | 64-bit ARM |
| win10-x64 | Windows 10 | 64-bit AMD |
You can find more information about RIDs in the .NET Core RID Catalog article.
Technically speaking, the publish command does not produce a “single file” in all cases. Starting with a simple console project named “SingleFilePublish”, the following outputs are produced:
One executable:
SingleFilePublish
5 files, including the executable:
clrcompression.dll clrjit.dll coreclr.dll mscordaccore.dll SingleFilePublish.exe
8 files, including the executable:
libclrjit.dylib libcoreclr.dylib libSystem.IO.Compression.Native.dylib libSystem.Native.dylib libSystem.Net.Security.Native.dylib libSystem.Security.Cryptography.Native.Apple.dylib libSystem.Security.Cryptography.Native.OpenSsl.dylib SingleFilePublish
One executable:
SingleFilePublish
With .NET 6, it looks like true single-file publishing has been achieved.
One executable:
SingleFilePublish
One executable:
SingleFilePublish.exe
One executable:
SingleFilePublish
One executable:
SingleFilePublish
When you run the dotnet publish command, outputs are written to the bin/Release/net5.0/publish directory. To deploy, simply copy the contents of this directory to your target machine.
The publish directory includes a .pdb file, but it’s not required. It just contains debugging information.
Simplifies the steps described above.
LINUX_RID = linux-x64 LINUX_RID_ARM = linux-arm MAC_RID = osx.10.14-x64 WINDOWS_RID = win10-x64 CONFIGURATION_ARGS = Release PUBLISH_ARGS = --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true default: @echo 'Targets:' @echo ' run' @echo ' run-win' @echo ' copy-pi' @echo ' publish' @echo ' publish-win' @echo ' publish-mac' @echo ' publish-arm' @echo ' clean' run: publish ./bin/Release/net5.0/linux-x64/publish/SingleFilePublish run-win: publish-win wine ./bin/Release/net5.0/win10-x64/publish/SingleFilePublish copy-pi: publish-arm scp ./bin/Release/net5.0/linux-arm/publish/SingleFilePublish pi@raspi4-main:/home/pi publish: dotnet publish -c $(CONFIGURATION_ARGS) -r $(LINUX_RID) $(PUBLISH_ARGS) publish-win: dotnet publish -c $(CONFIGURATION_ARGS) -r $(WINDOWS_RID) $(PUBLISH_ARGS) publish-arm: dotnet publish -c $(CONFIGURATION_ARGS) -r $(LINUX_RID_ARM) $(PUBLISH_ARGS) publish-mac: dotnet publish -c $(CONFIGURATION_ARGS) -r $(MAC_RID) $(PUBLISH_ARGS) clean: -rm -rf bin/ -rm -rf obj/