How to setup a DotNetCoreCLI@2 task to publish a self-contained exe-file for a WPF project with .Net 8?

Question

The settings

My goal is to understand the CI/CD process on Azure (and in general). For that, I have build a little Wpf-App. It is not doing much. Just displaying a simple ReadMe.txt file.
A test project is included and the tests are running fine.
Also, I am practicing app-configuration by replacing placeholders in appsettings.json by varibles in azure-pipelines.yml. This is running as supposed.

The goal to accomplish

Now I am working on publishing a self-contained exe-file that is excluding appsettings.json. That is where I do need some help. Is this task configured, properly?

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Publish'
  inputs:
    command: publish
    publishWebProjects: false
    arguments: '-c $(buildConfiguration) -r $(runtimeId) --self-contained true --output $(build.artifactstagingdirectory)'
    zipAfterPublish: false
  enabled: true

References

• PublishAppsWithCli
• AzurePipelines
• TrainingCourse (Phase 2; especially Video 50)

The code

The project file:

• the project's SelfContained property is set to true
• the appsettings.json file ExcludeFromSingleFile property is set to true
• the appsettings.[Environment].json files are added to gitignore.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
    <SelfContained>True</SelfContained>
  </PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="CommunityToolkit.Mvvm" Version="8.2.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging" Version="8.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\DevOpsWpf.Library\DevOpsWpf.Library.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <None Update="appsettings.Development.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="appsettings.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <ExcludeFromSingleFile>True</ExcludeFromSingleFile>
    </None>
    <None Update="appsettings.Production.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="appsettings.Staging.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="Documentations\AzureDevOpsSolution.docx">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="Documentations\ReadMe.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="Properties\launchSettings.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

The azure-pipeline file:

• task VSBuild@1 is currently disabled
• instead task DotNetCoreCLI@2 is enabled

I can not figure out which arguments in DotNetCoreCLI@2 to use to accomplish my goal.

trigger:
- main
pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'
Check replacetokens-task and appsettings.json
the following variables are used in appsettings.json
applicationHomeDirectory
applicationName
variables:
  solution: '*/.sln'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  runtimeId: 'win-x64'
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
  applicationHomeDirectory: 'C:\DevOpsSolution'
  applicationName: 'Azur DevOps Solution (azure-pipelines.yml)'
not sure, if this is needed
steps:

task: DeleteFiles@1
displayName: 'Delete files in artifactstagingdirectory'
inputs:
  SourceFolder: '$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)'
  Contents: '**'

working as intended

task: NuGetToolInstaller@1
displayName: 'Use NuGet 6.8.0'

working as intended

task: NuGetCommand@2
displayName: 'Restore NuGet Packages'
inputs:
  restoreSolution: '$(solution)'

working as intended

task: qetza.replacetokens.replacetokens-task.replacetokens@5
displayName: 'Replace tokens in appsettings.json'
inputs:
  targetFiles: '*/.json'

disabled task for testing

task: VSBuild@1
displayName: 'Build solution'
inputs:
  solution: '$(solution)'
  platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
  configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
enabled: false

testing this task instead of VSBuild; in artifact there are tons of files, instead of one exe-file and one json-file

task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
displayName: 'Publish'
inputs:
  command: publish
  publishWebProjects: false
  arguments: '-c $(buildConfiguration) -r $(runtimeId) --self-contained true --output $(build.artifactstagingdirectory)'
  zipAfterPublish: false
enabled: true

working as intended

task: VSTest@2
displayName: 'Test solution'
inputs:
  platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
  configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'

working to publish it to SolutionDrop; not sure if this is all that needs to be done here

task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
displayName: 'Publish Artifact: SolutionDrop'
inputs:
  PathtoPublish: '$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)'
  ArtifactName: SolutionDrop
condition: succeededOrFailed()

The published artifact is >200 MB and has a ton of files. That can not be correct. Here you see just the top:

Answer 1

Finally, I have received the result as it was intended to be.

This answer was the final clue. And I did find the reference in Microsoft documentation.

These properties are set in the project file:

    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
    <IncludeAllContentForSelfExtract>true</IncludeAllContentForSelfExtract>

There was a change in the publish process by Microsoft. If PublishSingleFile is set to true, Self-Contained is implied automatically.
When the above properties are set in the project file, they do not need to be listed as arguments in the command line.

The DotNetCoreCLI@2 task looks like this:

steps:
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Publish *.csproj'
  inputs:
    command: publish
    publishWebProjects: false
    projects: '**/DevOpsWpf.csproj'
    arguments: '-c Release -r win-x64 --output $(build.artifactstagingdirectory)'
    zipAfterPublish: false

The project file looks like this:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
    <IncludeAllContentForSelfExtract>true</IncludeAllContentForSelfExtract>
  </PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="CommunityToolkit.Mvvm" Version="8.2.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting" Version="8.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging" Version="8.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\DevOpsWpf.Library\DevOpsWpf.Library.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
    <None Update="appsettings.Development.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="appsettings.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <ExcludeFromSingleFile>True</ExcludeFromSingleFile>
    </None>
    <None Update="appsettings.Production.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="Documentations\ReadMe.txt">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="Properties\launchSettings.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>