This shows how to build a netcore console app, including all files needed to deploy to a system with netcore already installed.

This sample targets one dependency (NodaTime) for illustrative purposes

Moving pieces

CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies

The project needs to have CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies set to true.

<CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>true</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>

This will force all the package dependencies to be copied to the output.

Primary build

The primary build will produce the following files:

MyConsole.dll
NodaTime.dll
MyConsole.deps.json
MyConsole.runtimeconfig.dev.json
MyConsole.runtimeconfig.json

Note that is it missing the bootstrap exe MyConsole.exe and the host policy and host resolver files.

Secondary build

A secondary nested build is used to produce the missing bootstrap and hosting files.

It effectively executes the following command:

 dotnet build MyConsole.csproj --configuration Release --runtime win-x64 /p:CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies=false;IsNestedBuild=true

The IsNestedBuild property is used to prevent infinite recursion.

  <PropertyGroup>
    <NestedBuild>$(TargetDir)\nestedBuild\</NestedBuild>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <BootStrapFiles Include="
                    $(NestedBuild)hostpolicy.dll;
                    $(NestedBuild)$(ProjectName).exe;
                    $(NestedBuild)hostfxr.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Target Name="GenerateNetcoreExe"
          AfterTargets="Build"
          Condition="$(IsNestedBuild) != true">
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(NestedBuild)" />
    <Exec ConsoleToMSBuild="true"
          Command="dotnet build $(ProjectPath) ^
          --configuration $(Configuration) ^
          --runtime win-x64 ^
          --output $(NestedBuild) ^
          /p:CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies=false;IsNestedBuild=true">
      <Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput"
              PropertyName="OutputOfExec" />
    </Exec>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(BootStrapFiles)"
          DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)" />
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(NestedBuild)" />
  </Target>

Final output

The full resultant file list

hostfxr.dll
hostpolicy.dll
MyConsole.deps.json
MyConsole.dll
MyConsole.exe
MyConsole.runtimeconfig.dev.json
MyConsole.runtimeconfig.json
NodaTime.dll

Debug files

This project uses embedded symbols, so no pdb is created. However if a pdb is required, or it is necessary to include pdbs from referenced packages, consider using the SourceLink.Copy.PdbFiles NuGet package:

<PackageReference Include="SourceLink.Copy.PdbFiles" Version="2.8.3" PrivateAssets="All" />

See dotnet/sdk/issues/1458 for more information.

Full csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
    <CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>true</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>
    <DebugType>embedded</DebugType>
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
    <AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>false</AppendRuntimeIdentifierToOutputPath>
    <TargetLatestRuntimePatch>true</TargetLatestRuntimePatch>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="NodaTime" Version="2.4.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <NestedBuild>$(TargetDir)\nestedBuild\</NestedBuild>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <BootStrapFiles Include="
                    $(NestedBuild)hostpolicy.dll;
                    $(NestedBuild)$(ProjectName).exe;
                    $(NestedBuild)hostfxr.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Target Name="GenerateNetcoreExe"
          AfterTargets="Build"
          Condition="$(IsNestedBuild) != true">
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(NestedBuild)" />
    <Exec ConsoleToMSBuild="true"
          Command="dotnet build $(ProjectPath) ^
          --configuration $(Configuration) ^
          --runtime win-x64 ^
          --output $(NestedBuild) ^
          /p:CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies=false;IsNestedBuild=true">
      <Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput"
              PropertyName="OutputOfExec" />
    </Exec>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(BootStrapFiles)"
          DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)" />
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(NestedBuild)" />
  </Target>

</Project>