You're reading from Building CLI Applications with C# and .NET A step-by-step guide to developing cross-platform CLI apps—from coding and testing to deployment

Product type Paperback

Published in Feb 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781835882740

Length 300 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

Tools

.NET

Concepts

Programming Language

Author (1):

Tidjani Belmansour

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Table of Contents (22) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Getting Started with CLI Applications FREE CHAPTER

2. Chapter 1: Introduction to CLI Applications

3. Chapter 2: Setting Up the Development Environment

4. Chapter 3: Basic Concepts of Console Applications in .NET

5. Part 2: Foundations of Building CLI Applications

6. Chapter 4: Command-Line Parsing

7. Chapter 5: Input/Output and File Handling

8. Chapter 6: Error Handling and Logging

9. Part 3: Advanced Topics in CLI Application Development

10. Chapter 7: Interactive CLI Applications

11. Chapter 8: Building Modular and Extensible CLI Applications

12. Chapter 9: Working with External APIs and Services

13. Part 4: Testing and Deployment

14. Chapter 10: Testing CLI Applications

15. Chapter 11: Packaging and Deployment

16. Part 5: Advanced Techniques and Best Practices

17. Chapter 12: Performance Optimization and Tuning

18. Chapter 13: Security Considerations for CLI Applications

19. Chapter 14: Additional Resources and Libraries

20. Index

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Packaging and distribution options for CLI applications

When it comes to packaging a CLI application, several methods exist, and choosing the most appropriate one depends on the way we intend to distribute it.

The most common options are as follows:

MSI installer: This option allows for a more traditional installation experience and can be achieved using tools such as WiX or Visual Studio Installer Projects. Keep in mind that this option only works for Windows. Hence, if we intend to distribute our CLI application to multiple platforms, this option may not be the best one.
.NET tool: We can distribute our application as a library or tool by packaging it as a NuGet package. This allows users to install it through the dotnet tool install command. Since our CLI application is built using a version of .NET that is cross-platform, we can distribute it as a .NET tool to various platforms. The downside of this approach is in the installation mechanism: it requires the .NET...