Creating projects and solutions using the dotnet command

I've been digging into .NET Core a little bit more recently, with the intention of using it for an upcoming project at work (sssh, don't tell anyone - they don't know yet!) and part of that has been filling in the gaps in my knowledge. I know I can create a solution and a project via Visual Studio, but the dotnet command exists so it's really not a bad idea to have an understanding of how it can be used to achieve the same outcome!

It turns out that the commands that I need to know to create a new solution, a project and then combine the two are:

• dotnet new sln
• dotnet new classlib (as I'm creating a class library)
• dotnet sln add

So, what I did was created a new solution, created a project and then added the project to the solution. The solution and the project were both named very imaginately as 'RobertWray.NewProject'. The steps to do this are:

1. Create the directory to host your solution and cd into that directory
2. Run the command dotnet new sln to create the solution file - it will be named the same as the containing folder
3. Create the directory to host the project and cd into that directory
4. Run the command dotnet new classlib to create the claas librar - again, it will be named the same as the containg folder
5. cd up back into the directory that contains the solution file
6. Run the command dotnet sln add .\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj (substituting the name of your project)

That's all there is to it. One solution that contains a project, created via the command line! 

Just because it might be useful, here's the output from running the commands in order in PowerShell:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS D:\> md RobertWray.NewProject


    Directory: D:\


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----       16/06/2018     18:41                RobertWray.NewProject


PS D:\> cd .\RobertWray.NewProject\
PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject> dotnet new sln
The template "Solution File" was created successfully.
PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject> md RobertWray.NewProject


    Directory: D:\RobertWray.NewProject


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----       16/06/2018     18:50                RobertWray.NewProject


PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject> cd .\RobertWray.NewProject\
PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject> dotnet new classlib
The template "Class library" was created successfully.

Processing post-creation actions...
Running 'dotnet restore' on D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj...
  Restoring packages for D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj...
  Generating MSBuild file D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject\obj\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj.nuget.g.props.
  Generating MSBuild file D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject\obj\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj.nuget.g.targets.
  Restore completed in 151.53 ms for D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj.

Restore succeeded.

PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject> cd..
PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject> dotnet sln add .\RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj
Project `RobertWray.NewProject\RobertWray.NewProject.csproj` added to the solution.
PS D:\RobertWray.NewProject>