Cross-compilation with Visual Studio 2019

Question

I'm using VS2019 under Windows 10 and I'm trying to figure out how to compile for the non-Windows platforms. I'm aware that only some languages support cross-compilation (C# being one of them). So I decided to start off with one of Microsoft's own examples (the Console App for .NET Core). When asking VS2019 to create the Console project, it shows me various image icons which suggest that it'll be buildable for Windows, Linux and macOS - but no matter what I do, I can only make it build the Windows target.

After a bit of research I realized that I need to add this line to my C# project file:-

<RuntimeIdentifiers>win10-x64;osx.10.11-x64;ubuntu.16.10-x64</RuntimeIdentifiers>

but even after adding that line (and re-loading / re-building the project) it staunchly refuses to build anything apart from the Windows target. Over on CodeGuru, one of the devs there tried it for me (under VS2017) and managed to make it work - but I've tried it in VS2019 and also VS2015 and I can't make it work in either of them. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong??

[Edit...] Thanks Magnetron - if I press Build->Publish I see a totally different dialog from the one you're seeing (and it's the same in both VS2015 and VS2019):-

Even if I follow the Next or Finish buttons I never see the Create Profile option :(

Answer 1

Woohoo!! I just ran the VS2019 installer to remind myself how to uninstall (in preparation for tomorrow) and it told me there's already a 16.3.5 available. 16.3.4 only got installed a few hours ago but for the hell of it, I figured I might as well try the newer version - and it's now working !!!

Answer 2

Go to Build > Publish, select Folder and click on Create Profile

Then Click on Edit and change the Deployment Mode to Self-contained. At last, you can specify the target OS in Target Runtime

You can create multiple profiles for each OS, and publish each one individualy as needed.

Edit:

The posted publish dialog is for a .Net Framework Console app, not an .Net Core one. The .Net framework is Windows only, you have to create your project as a .Net Core