Upgrading a 20 yr previous College Undertaking to .NET 6 with dotnet-upgrade-assistant
I wrote a Tiny Digital Working System for a 300-level OS class in C# for school again in 2001 (?) and later moved it to VB.NET in 2002. That is all pre-.NET Core, and on early .NET 1.1 or 2.0 on Home windows. I moved it to GitHub 5 years in the past and ported it to .NET Core 2.0 on the time. At this level it was 15 years previous, so it was cool to see this venture operating on Home windows, Linux, in Docker, and on a Raspberry Pi…a machine that did not exist when the venture was initially written.
NOTE: If the timeline is complicated, I had already been working in business for years at this level however was nonetheless plugging away at my 4 yr diploma at evening. It will definitely took 11 years to finish my BS in Software program Engineering.
This night, as the kids slept, I needed to see if I may run the .NET Improve Assistant on this now 20 yr previous app and get it operating on .NET 6.
Let’s begin:
$ upgrade-assistant improve .TinyOS.sln
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Microsoft .NET Improve Assistant v0.3.256001+3c4e05c787f588e940fe73bfa78d7eedfe0190bdWe're focused on your suggestions! Please use the next hyperlink to open a survey: https://aka.ms/DotNetUASurvey
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[22:58:01 INF] Loaded 5 extensions
[22:58:02 INF] Utilizing MSBuild from C:Program Filesdotnetsdk6.0.100
[22:58:02 INF] Utilizing Visible Studio set up from C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visible Studio2022Preview [v17]
[22:58:06 INF] Initializing improve step Choose an entrypoint
[22:58:07 INF] Setting entrypoint to solely venture in answer: C:UsersscottTinyOSsrcTinyOSCoreTinyOSCore.csproj
[22:58:07 INF] Recommending executable TFM net6.0 as a result of the venture builds to an executable
[22:58:07 INF] Initializing improve step Choose venture to improve
[22:58:07 INF] Recommending executable TFM net6.0 as a result of the venture builds to an executable
[22:58:07 INF] Recommending executable TFM net6.0 as a result of the venture builds to an executable
[22:58:07 INF] Initializing improve step Again up venture
See how the method is interactive on the command line, with colour prompts and a sequence of dynamic multiple-choice questions?
Curiously, it builds on the primary strive, no errors.
After I manually have a look at the .csproj I can see some bizarre model numbers, doubtless from some not-quite-baked model of .NET Core 2 I used a few years in the past. My spidey sense says that is incorrect, and I am assuming the improve assistant did not perceive it.
<!-- <PackageReference Embody="ILLink.Duties" Model="0.1.4-preview-906439" /> -->
<PackageReference Embody="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration" Model="2.0.0-preview2-final" />
<PackageReference Embody="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json" Model="2.0.0-preview2-final" />
<PackageReference Embody="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Model="2.0.0-preview2-final" />
<PackageReference Embody="Microsoft.Extensions.Choices.ConfigurationExtensions" Model="2.0.0-preview2-final" />
I additionally observe a commented-out reference to ILLink.Duties which was a preview characteristic in Mono’s Linker to scale back the ultimate measurement of apps and tree-trim them. A few of that performance is constructed into .NET 6 now so I am going to use that in the course of the construct and packaging course of later. The reference is just not wanted in the present day.
I am gonna blindly improve them to .NET 6 and see what occurs. I may do that by simply altering the numbers and seeing if it restores and builds, however I may also strive dotnet outdated which stays a beautiful instrument within the upgrader’s toolkit.
This “outdated” instrument is sweet because it talks to NuGet and confirms that there are newer variations of sure packages.
In my checks – which had been simply batch recordsdata at this early time – I used to be calling my dotnet app like this:
dotnet netcoreapp2.0/TinyOSCore.dll 512 scott13.txt
It will change to the trendy type with simply TinyOSCore.exe 512 scott13.txt with an exe and args and no ceremony.
Publishing and trimming my TinyOS turns into only a 15 meg EXE. Good contemplating that the .NET I want is in there with no separate set up. I may flip this little artificial OS right into a microservice if I needed to be completely additional.
dotnet publish -r win-x64 --self-contained -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:SuppressTrimAnalysisWarnings=true
If I add
-p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true
Then it is even smaller. No code modifications. Run all my checks, seems good. My venture from college from .NET 1.1 is now .NET 6.0, cross platform, self-contained in 11 megs in a single EXE. Candy.
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About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, guide, father, diabetic, and Microsoft worker. He’s a failed stand-up comedian, a cornrower, and a ebook creator.
