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PublishDepsFilePath behavior change

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The PublishDepsFilePath MSBuild property is empty for single-file applications. Additionally, for non single-file applications, the deps.json file may not be copied to the output directory until later in the build.

Version introduced

5.0

Change description

In previous .NET versions, the PublishDepsFilePath MSBuild property is the path to the app's deps.json file in the output directory for non single-file applications, and a path in the intermediate directory for single-file apps.

Starting in .NET 5, PublishDepsFilePath is empty for single-file applications and a new IntermediateDepsFilePath property specifies the deps.json location in the intermediate directory. Additionally, for non single-file applications, the deps.json file may not be copied to the output directory (that is, the path specified by PublishDepsFilePath) until later in the build.

Reason for change

This change was made for a couple of reasons:

  • Due to a refactoring of the publish logic in order to support improved single-file apps in .NET 5.

  • In single-file apps, to help guard against targets that try to rewrite the deps.json file after deps.json has already been bundled, thus silently not affecting the app. For this reason, PublishDepsFilePath is empty for single-file applications.

Targets that rewrite the deps.json file should generally do so using the IntermediateDepsFilePath property.

Affected APIs

N/A