Compiling options and arguments

[codenotworking]

Thanks for the clock app. I have some questions, which are purely academic.

1. What are the options and arguments you used exactly for compiling with .NET, to get a standalone EXE at 1.42 MB?
2. Does .NET runtime need to be installed (and in the SYSTEM PATH) to run this app on Windows?

[danielchalmers]

Hi! The exact build actions can be found in here:

DesktopClock/.github/actions/prepare-for-release/action.yml

Lines 18 to 26 in 419956d

	- name: Publish
	shell: bash
	run: dotnet publish ./DesktopClock/DesktopClock.csproj -o "publish" -c Release -r win-x64
	- name: Create installer
	shell: bash
	run: |
	dotnet tool install --global wix --version 4.0.5
	wix build Product.wxs -o "publish/Install DesktopClock.msi"

The reason the exe is so small is because it's still using the .NET Framework, which yes, does need to be installed beforehand (but comes pre-installed with Windows).

[codenotworking]

I was experimenting with the dotnet publish command. For me, I had to add --self-contained=false /p:PublishSingleFile=true to get an EXE file.

Also, I added --configuration "Release" to target .NET 8 SDK or a later.

dotnet.exe publish "PATH_TO_CSPROJ_FILE" --output "OUTPUT_DIR" --configuration "Release" --runtime "win-x64" --self-contained=false /p:PublishSingleFile=true

[danielchalmers]

It's works a little different because I'm using .NET Framework 4.8.1 while you're using .NET (Core) 8

.NET Framework is pre-installed so you don't have to worry about that, but users will have to download the .NET 8 runtime if they don't have it already.

I'm also using Costura.Fody to bundle everything into a single exe which is a bit different as well.