C#•12mo ago

Resolve `dotnet` executable path programmatically

Trying to get NuGet packages loading correctly under a hosted env. -- so I need to grab the NuGet package dir. But doing so programmatically itself seems to require a NuGet package so I'm trying to just grab the output from

dotnet nuget locals global-packages --list

dotnet nuget locals global-packages --list

instead.

However I want to try and support a situation where the executing

dotnet

dotnet

may not be the one on the

PATH

PATH

, or no

dotnet

dotnet

is present on the

PATH

PATH

at all -- so I'd like to grab the

dotnet

dotnet

executable which is running the current program. I couldn't find a reliable way to do this without some janky solution like getting the process

argv

argv

with native APIs so I thought I'd ask here.

Thanks in advance!

Original message was deleted

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:03 PM

I cant use the NuGet package for NuGet in my process for loading NuGet packages ;p

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:04 PM

unless I embedded that package in my hosting lib which seems suboptimal

Original message was deleted

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:34 PM

no it's

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:34 PM

a native program loading and running .NET

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:35 PM

so I've got a function which I'm adding to the ALC

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:35 PM

within which I need to handle loading user DLLs, and therefore also their dependencies

Original message was deleted

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:39 PM

yeah there's no

dotnet

dotnet

running the program

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:40 PM

but there is an associated runtime somewhere on the system

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:40 PM

I could get the hostfxr library path and work backwards or smth but that would also

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:40 PM

be a bit jank

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:42 PM

on Linux we defer to 's mechanisms for loading the hostfxr library since

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:42 PM

the user could be doing something wacky

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:42 PM

then have a few default paths as fallback

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:42 PM

From what I can tell MS just recommends something like this for Windows:

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:43 PM

which also doesn't allow for multi-installs or getting an alternate path but

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:43 PM

at that point you'd just be asking the user for a path

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:44 PM

from what I can tell on non-Windows systems the vendor is allowed tell

dotnet

dotnet

to go in a load of different prefixes

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:45 PM

it's certainly not the end of the world to just say "please use a sane environment with a standard install" but as a hosting library that isn't neccesarily a reasonable request

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:46 PM

before leaving Mono for .NET Core we had a mini Mono root being shipped in an engine f.e.

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 3:47 PM

all good -- thanks for pitching in anyway!

wasabi•1/13/25, 3:59 PM

Isn't this what nethost is for, or?

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 4:04 PM

wdym?

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:11 PM

The nethost library. It's job is to locate hostfxr.

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:14 PM

Unless I'm mistaken, the idea is you use either include the nethost bin, or statically compile it, and that is responsible for locating hostfxr.

Wwasabi Unless I'm mistaken, the idea is you use either include the nethost bin, or stat...

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:17 PM

haven't looked into it but that infra was written before I inherited the lib -- I'll take a gander but irrespective that doesn't really help me with the NuGet paths unless I'm misunderstanding you

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:18 PM

Well the NuGet libraries are .NET assemblies.....

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:19 PM

I think you're going to need to describe the entire problem a lot clearer.

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:21 PM

okay gimme a sec and I'll reword it

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:29 PM

I'm working in a .NET hosting env, I'm trying to get loading assemblies which use NuGet packages to work

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:29 PM

so I need to get the NuGet package path of the relevant SDK that I'm using

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:29 PM

but that SDK may not necessarily be in a standard location

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:30 PM

and obviously I can't use the normal programmatic ways to get the paths because they are themselves NuGet packages

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:30 PM

Why would there be an SDK at all?

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:30 PM

so I need to grab the relevant

dotnet

dotnet

executable, to get the NuGet package cache

Wwasabi Why would there be an SDK at all?

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:30 PM

well SDK/runtime they run out of the same relative root no?

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:30 PM

The part that doesn't make sense to me is that at runtime, an SDK isnt even required to be installed.

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:31 PM

The .NET runtime itself doesn't make use of Nuget at all.

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:31 PM

So these nuget packages you're trying to locate, I guess I don't understand why?

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:32 PM

like if I just a .NET project which happens to use NuGet packages -- those packages don't live alongside the project's built artefacts

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:32 PM

Right. That's what dotnet publish is for.

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:33 PM

sure -- but packaging is the responsibility of the application which is using this hosting lib since

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:33 PM

It builds a publishable (redistributable) set. Which includes any relevant dependencies.

EEmily-TTG sure -- but packaging is the responsibility of the application which is using th...

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:33 PM

it could have a whole plethora of other run req.s

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:33 PM

and also to my understanding you don't want to be publishing for every single build?

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

So, let me try to see if I understand. YOu are getting DLLs from some unknown source, and need to 'include their dependencies'. And want to use NuGet at runtime to do that?

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

at least that's what MSDN made me believe

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

You don't need to publish if you are just running it out of your dev environment.

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

well yeah but that doesn't currently work

Wwasabi So, let me try to see if I understand. YOu are getting DLLs from some unknown so...

Emily-TTGOP•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

not neccesarily use NuGet at runtime -- but if the normal resolution fails

wasabi•1/13/25, 5:34 PM

What normal resolution?