It is not supported to publish an app to a single file without RuntimeIdentifier

Issue Description:

.NET Core build gives below error,

It is not supported to publish an application to a single-file without specifying a RuntimeIdentifier. Please either specify a RuntimeIdentifier or set PublishSingleFile to false.

You might get this error on CLI or using Visual Studio IDE.

Resolution:

The issue I found to be not specifying the runtime identifier in the project file or through the publish command.

When choosing an option to create a single exe file for multiple dll or apps

Runtime identifier using CLI

Please specify the runtime identifier as below,

dotnet publish -r linux-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true 

OR 

dotnet publish -r win10-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true

Runtime identifier using Project File

Here below is sample project file,

For Linux

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
 
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <RuntimeIdentifier>linux-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
  </PropertyGroup>
 
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="12.0.2" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\ExternalApp1\ExternalApp1.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="..\ExternalApp2\ExternalApp2.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

 
</Project>

For Windows

<PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <RuntimeIdentifier>win10-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

Specify multiple Runtime

You will not be able to specify multiple runtimes while using CLI, However, you can specify commands multiple times for the supported target version.

dotnet publish -r linux-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true

Other references:

• Load Multiple DLL as Single Exe in .NET and .NET Core
• Create Self Contained Single Executable (EXE) in .NET Core 3.0

Did the above steps resolve your issue? Please sound off in the comments below!

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