sdk: .NET Core executables fail if .NET Core is not installed in default location

From @natemcmaster on Friday, April 20, 2018 7:07:14 PM

Steps to reproduce

Download .NET Core CLI to $env:USERPROFILE/.dotnet/x64 and install a global tool

$env:PATH="$env:USERPROFILE/.dotnet/x64;$env:PATH"
dotnet-install.ps1 -Version 2.1.300-preview3-008646 -InstallDir $env:USERPROFILE/.dotnet/x64
dotnet-install.ps1 -Runtime aspnetcore -Version 2.1.0-preview2-final -InstallDir $env:USERPROFILE/.dotnet/x64
dotnet tool install -g dotnet-serve
dotnet-serve

Expected behavior

The generated shim dotnet-serve.exe should find and use the dotnet on PATH to launch the global tool.

Actual behavior

If no .NET Core is installed in C:\Program Files\dotnet

PS > dotnet-serve
A fatal error occurred, the required library hostfxr.dll could not be found.
If this is a self-contained application, that library should exist in [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\tools\.store\dotnet-serve\0.3.0\dotnet-serve\0.3.0\tools\netcoreapp2.1\any\].
If this is a framework-dependent application, install the runtime in the default location [C:\Program Files\dotnet] or use the DOTNET_ROOT environment variable to specify the runtime location.

If .NET Core is installed in C:\Program Files\dotnet, but doesn’t have the right shared framework version

PS> $env:COREHOST_TRACE=1
PS> dotnet-serve
Tracing enabled
--- Invoked apphost [version: 2.1.0-rc1-26419-02, commit hash: 515f580aa000600da03e81537396d2253b16fa12] main = {
C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\tools\dotnet-serve.exe
}
The managed DLL bound to this executable is: '.store\dotnet-serve\0.3.0\dotnet-serve\0.3.0\tools\netcoreapp2.1\any\dotnet-serve.dll'
Using default installation location [C:\Program Files\dotnet] as runtime location.
Reading fx resolver directory=[C:\Program Files\dotnet\host\fxr]
Considering fxr version=[2.0.5]...
Considering fxr version=[2.0.6]...
Considering fxr version=[2.0.7]...
Detected latest fxr version=[C:\Program Files\dotnet\host\fxr\2.0.7]...
Resolved fxr [C:\Program Files\dotnet\host\fxr\2.0.7\hostfxr.dll]...
Loaded library from C:\Program Files\dotnet\host\fxr\2.0.7\hostfxr.dll
Probed for and did not resolve library symbol ????????????
The required library C:\Program Files\dotnet\host\fxr\2.0.7\hostfxr.dll does not support relative app dll paths.

Environment data

dotnet --info output:

.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   2.1.300-preview3-008646
 Commit:    8e01912b36

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.16299
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\sdk\2.1.300-preview3-008646\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 2.1.0-rc1-26419-02
  Commit:  515f580aa0

.NET Core SDKs installed:
  2.1.4 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\sdk]
  2.1.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  2.1.105 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\sdk]
  2.1.300-preview2-008530 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\sdk]
  2.1.300-preview3-008646 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.0-preview2-30478 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.0-preview2-final [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.0-rc1-30613 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.0-preview2-final [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.0-rc1-30613 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 1.1.5 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.7 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.0-preview2-26406-04 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.0-rc1-26419-02 [C:\Users\namc\.dotnet\x64\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]

To install additional .NET Core runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

Copied from original issue: dotnet/cli#9114

About this issue

Original URL
State: open
Created 5 years ago
Reactions: 5
Comments: 54

Most upvoted comments

@voronoipotato I’ve been using the following successfully for VS Online:

export DOTNET_ROOT=$(dirname $(realpath $(which dotnet)))
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet/tools"

jcansdale on May 19, 2020

From @KallDrexx on Thursday, October 17, 2019 1:33:55 PM

I just want to add an anecdote I encountered that caused me a huge amount of confusion, and no amount of dotnet install docs helped because I never ran dotnet install.

I work at a bank and we don’t have admin access to our machines. To not have to deal with the pain that it is getting someone to install .net core 3.0 for me I downloaded the binaries, placed them in c:\users\<name>\dotnet, and added that to my path. I have been successfully doing .net core 2.2 and 3.0 development that way for a while (due to Rider not needing admin to install).

However, I downloaded Linqpad6 (which is a .net core 3.0 application) and it would not run. Running the executable would do absolutely nothing, and trying to dotnet Linqpad6.exe would give an error about hostpolicy.dll not being found (and no mention of any environment variables).

After a back and forth with the Linqpad dev I ended up doing a really round about testing that finally gave me the error above about the DOTNET_ROOT environment variable not being set. Setting this fixed all my issues.

So my point is, this has the potential to really cause confusion for downloaded .net core precompiled binaries and it’s actually very hard to find out that the solution is DOTNET_ROOT.

At a minimum I believe that if DOTNET_ROOT is not set then all executions of dotnet cli should give a warning about this not being set.

wli3 on Oct 17, 2019

From @grantzvolsky on Thursday, August 22, 2019 1:17:31 PM

For those using the snap package, the libhostfxr.so error can be fixed as follows.

export DOTNET_ROOT=/snap/dotnet-sdk/current

Complete configuration for Ubuntu development: /etc/profile.d/04-dotnet-cli-tools.sh

#!/bin/bash
export DOTNET_ROOT=/snap/dotnet-sdk/current
export MSBuildSDKsPath=$DOTNET_ROOT/sdk/$(${DOTNET_ROOT}/dotnet --version)/Sdks
export PATH="${PATH}:${DOTNET_ROOT}"
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet/tools"

wli3 on Oct 17, 2019

From @natemcmaster on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 3:30:26 AM

Try changing this line to include readlink, which follow the symlink to the actual location of dotnet.

export DOTNET_ROOT="$(dirname "$(readlink "$(command -v dotnet)")")"

wli3 on Oct 17, 2019

From @tmds on Monday, July 2, 2018 4:39:52 AM

This finds dotnet on PATH and determines DOTNET_ROOT based on that:

export DOTNET_ROOT=$(dirname $(realpath $(which dotnet)))

wli3 on Oct 17, 2019