Here is one example of a daily workflow for a developer working mainly on the libraries, in this case using Windows:
:: From root:
git clean -xdf
git pull upstream master & git push origin master
:: Build Debug libraries on top of Release runtime:
build -subsetCategory coreclr-libraries -runtimeConfiguration Release
:: The above you may only perform once in a day, or when you pull down significant new changes.
:: Switch to working on a given library (RegularExpressions in this case)
cd src\libraries\System.Text.RegularExpressions
:: If you use Visual Studio, you might open System.Text.RegularExpressions.sln here.
build -vs System.Text.RegularExpressions
:: Change to test directory
cd tests
:: Then inner loop build / test
:: (If using Visual Studio, you might run tests inside it instead)
pushd ..\src & dotnet build & popd & dotnet build /t:test
The instructions for Linux and macOS are essentially the same:
# From root:
git clean -xdf
git pull upstream master & git push origin master
# Build Debug libraries on top of Release runtime:
./build.sh -subsetCategory coreclr-libraries -runtimeconfiguration Release
# The above you may only perform once in a day, or when you pull down significant new changes.
# Switch to working on a given library (RegularExpressions in this case)
cd src/libraries/System.Text.RegularExpressions
# Change to test directory
cd tests
# Then inner loop build / test:
pushd ../src & dotnet build & popd & dotnet build /t:test
The steps above may be all you need to know to make a change. Want more details about what this means? Read on.
This document explains how to work on libraries. In order to work on library projects or run library tests it is necessary to have built the runtime to give the libraries something to run on. You should normally build CoreCLR runtime in release configuration and libraries in debug configuration. If you haven't already done so, please read this document to understand configurations.
These example commands will build a release CoreCLR (and CoreLib), debug libraries, and debug installer:
For Linux:
./build.sh -runtimeConfiguration Release
For Windows:
./build.cmd -runtimeConfiguration Release
Detailed information about building and testing runtimes and the libraries is in the documents linked below.
The above commands will give you libraries in "debug" configuration (the default) using a runtime in "release" configuration which hopefully you built earlier.
The libraries build has two logical components, the native build which produces the "shims" (which provide a stable interface between the OS and managed code) and the managed build which produces the MSIL code and NuGet packages that make up Libraries. The commands above will build both.
The build settings (BuildTargetFramework, TargetOS, Configuration, Architecture) are generally defaulted based on where you are building (i.e. which OS or which architecture) but we have a few shortcuts for the individual properties that can be passed to the build scripts:
-framework|-f
identifies the target framework for the build. Possible values includenetcoreapp5.0
(currently the latest .NET Core version) ornet472
. (msbuild propertyBuildTargetFramework
)-os
identifies the OS for the build. It defaults to the OS you are running on but possible values includeWindows_NT
,Unix
,Linux
, orOSX
. (msbuild propertyTargetOS
)-configuration|-c Debug|Release
controls the optimization level the compilers use for the build. It defaults toDebug
. (msbuild propertyConfiguration
)-arch
identifies the architecture for the build. It defaults tox64
but possible values includex64
,x86
,arm
, orarm64
. (msbuild propertyArchGroup
)
For more details on the build settings see project-guidelines.
If you invoke the build
script without any actions, the default action chain -restore -build
is executed. You can chain multiple actions together (e.g., -restore -build -buildtests
) and they will execute in the appropriate order. Note that if you specify actions like -build
explicitly, you likely need to explicitly add -restore
as well.
By default the build
script only builds the product libraries and none of the tests. If you want to build the tests you can add the flag -buildtests
. If you want to run the tests you can add the flag -test
. To build and run the tests combine both arguments: -buildtests -test
. To specify just the libraries, use -subcategory libraries
.
Examples
- Building in release mode for platform x64 (restore and build are implicit here as no actions are passed in)
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -c Release -arch x64
- Building the src assemblies and build and run tests (running all tests takes a considerable amount of time!)
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -restore -build -buildtests -test
- Building for different target frameworks (restore and build are implicit again as no action is passed in)
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -framework netcoreapp5.0
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -framework net472
- Build only managed components and skip the native build
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries /p:BuildNative=false
- Clean the entire solution
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -clean
For Windows, replace ./build.sh
with build.cmd
.
The libraries build contains some native code. This includes shims over libc, openssl, gssapi, and zlib. The build system uses CMake to generate Makefiles using clang. The build also uses git for generating some version information.
Examples
- Building in debug mode for platform x64
./src/libraries/Native/build-native.sh debug x64
- The following example shows how you would do an arm cross-compile build
./src/libraries/Native/build-native.sh debug arm cross verbose
For Windows, replace build-native.sh
with build-native.cmd
.
Similar to building the entire repo with build.cmd
or build.sh
in the root you can build projects based on our directory structure by passing in the directory. We also support shortcuts for libraries so you can omit the root src
folder from the path. When given a directory we will build all projects that we find recursively under that directory. Some examples may help here.
Examples
- Build all projects for a given library (e.g.: System.Collections) including running the tests
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries src/libraries/System.Collections
- Build just the tests for a library project
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries src/libraries/System.Collections/tests
- All the options listed above like framework and configuration are also supported (note they must be after the directory)
./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries System.Collections -f net472 -c Release
As dotnet build
works on both Unix and Windows and calls the restore target implicitly, we will use it throughout this guide.
Under the src
directory is a set of directories, each of which represents a particular assembly in Libraries. See Library Project Guidelines section under project-guidelines for more details about the structure.
For example the src\libraries\System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
directory holds the source code for the System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.dll assembly.
You can build the DLL for System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.dll by going to the src\libraries\System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticsSource\src
directory and typing dotnet build
. The DLL ends up in artifacts\bin\AnyOS.AnyCPU.Debug\System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
as well as artifacts\bin\runtime\[$(BuildTargetFramework)-$(TargetOS)-$(Configuration)-$(ArchGroup)]
.
You can build the tests for System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.dll by going to
src\libraries\System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource\tests
and typing dotnet build
.
Some libraries might also have a ref
and/or a pkg
directory and you can build them in a similar way by typing dotnet build
in that directory.
For libraries that have multiple target frameworks the target frameworks will be listed in the <TargetFrameworks>
property group. When building the csproj for a BuildTargetFramework the most compatible target framework in the list will be chosen and set for the build. For more information about TargetFrameworks
see project-guidelines.
Examples
- Build project for Linux for .NET Core
dotnet build System.Net.NetworkInformation.csproj /p:TargetOS=Linux
- Build Release version of library
dotnet build -c Release System.Net.NetworkInformation.csproj
By default the libraries will attempt to build using the CoreCLR version of System.Private.CoreLib.dll
. In order to build against the Mono version you need to use the /p:RuntimeFlavor=Mono
argument.
.\build.cmd -subsetCategory libraries /p:RuntimeFlavor=Mono
By default, building from the root will only build the libraries for the OS you are running on. One can
build for another OS by specifying ./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -os [value]
.
Note that you cannot generally build native components for another OS but you can for managed components so if you need to do that you can do it at the individual project level or build all via passing /p:BuildNative=false
.
By default, building from the root or within a project will build the libraries in Debug mode.
One can build in Debug or Release mode from the root by doing ./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -c Release
or ./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -c Debug
.
One can build 32- or 64-bit binaries or for any architecture by specifying in the root ./build.sh -subsetCategory libraries -arch [value]
or in a project /p:ArchGroup=[value]
after the dotnet build
command.
If you are working on Windows, and use Visual Studio, you can open individual libraries projects into it. From within Visual Studio you can then build, debug, and run tests.
For more details about running tests inside Visual Studio, go here
For more about running tests, read the running tests document.