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Reputation: 13575

what is major difference between dotnet publish and dotnet pack

What is the major difference between dotnet pack and publish?

From Microsoft's description, my understanding is that pack creates a package while publish creates package + DLL.

Is this correct? If so, why not just always use publish and not use the DLL file if it is not needed.

Upvotes: 33

Views: 14636

Answers (3)

Udit Gandhi
Udit Gandhi

Reputation: 357

Basically, when we use the pack command, it creates a package; when we use the publish command, it creates a folder that can be copied and executed from anywhere.

What makes pack command unique is that the package gets updated to the nuget server without uploading its dependencies. Its dependencies are updated in the project which fetches the package when we run dotnet restore. This is not with the case of dotnet publish, as it contains third-party dependencies packed in the bundle.

Upvotes: 4

Martin Ullrich
Martin Ullrich

Reputation: 100581

Adding to the answer by @t0mm13b:

dotnet pack: The output is a package that is meant to be reused by other projects.

dotnet publish: The output is mean to be deployed / "shipped" - it is not a single "package file" but a directory with all the project's output.

Upvotes: 13

t0mm13b
t0mm13b

Reputation: 34592

dotnet pack - Produces a NuGet package of your code.

That is the key difference - this will enable to publish to http://nuget.org, or to a nuget server that can be pulled down by other developers, or even for use with Octopus Deploy.

dotnet publish - Produces a .NET framework-dependent or self-contained application.

Keyword is "self-contained", a installer perhaps, or a folder that can be deployed by copying/pasting between hosts.

Upvotes: 31

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