Reconsider Minimal API on .NET Core in 5 minutes on WSL

.NET is trying to fit more with DX (Developer experience). Now it run on Mac, WSL, Linux and bring in more style that us, developer love.

command line — lighter weight — develop incrementally

So I reconsider it shortly and would like to show you some.

Install .NET on WSL

To start you need add .NET repos because it is private, then go with the classic sudo apt install

# Make private repos works with APT
declare repo_version=$(if command -v lsb_release &> /dev/null; then lsb_release -r -s; else grep -oP '(?<=^VERSION_ID=).+' /etc/os-release | tr -d '"'; fi)
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$repo_version/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt update

# Install the SDK
sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-7.0

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux-ubuntu#supported-distributions

If you are confused, you need the SDK version. SDK version has everything to dev including runtime.

Create the project: Minimal API

Now you have the command line to create the project

dotnet new web -o learn-dotnet

Open VS code then install extension and hit Ctrl+F5 then you will get the browser pop to open.

Alternatively our favorite command line interface

Yes we love command line. Now they have one

# Inside project folder
dotnet run

or better with hot reloading

dotnet watch

I notice sometimes there is a reload bug.

To force rebuild you need to hit Ctrl+R

Then you go to browser to see the hello world.

http://localhost:5173/

Troubleshooting: SDK not found

You can examine your completeness of installation by

dotnet --info

...
# NOT COMPLETE

.NET SDKs installed:
No SDKs were found

The SDK is there but in the wrong location. You can link it to the default location by below ln command.

for f in /usr/share/dotnet/* ; do; sudo ln -s $f /usr/lib/dotnet ; done

References

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/tutorials/min-web-api?view=aspnetcore-7.0&tabs=visual-studio-code