Why WPF project after build will make Myapp.exe and Myapp.dll?

Question

Why WPF project after build will make Myapp.exe and Myapp.dll? using net 6.0 will do like I said, but if using NetFramwork 4.8 will only make Myapp.exe , not any dll.

Answer 1

unlike the old framework, .net core did not update the operating system to directly host .net core applications. the build process creates a small exe (c/c++ app) that can host the .net core application (dll). in early versions this was just a script that used dotnet to run the app, but now its a small exe named after the app. typically deployment is a folder from which you run the exe.

note: with net 6 the build can create a single file exe.

• on windows the publish creates an exe which when run, create a temp folder to extract the self contained files to, then runs the extracted exe. If temp folder already exists, it just runs the exe
• on MacOs (which has support for application bundles) it builds an application bundle that does not require any extraction process.
• on linux I believe it creates a self extracting tar file.

Answer 2

Actually documented clearly in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/#publish-framework-dependent

"Publishing an app as framework-dependent produces a cross-platform binary as a dll file, and a platform-specific executable that targets your current platform. The dll is cross-platform while the executable isn't. For example, if you publish an app named word_reader and target Windows, a word_reader.exe executable is created along with word_reader.dll. When targeting Linux or macOS, a word_reader executable is created along with word_reader.dll."