Squirrel.windows: .NET Core 3.0 support

[themightylc]

Are there any plans to support .NET Core 3.0? I've run the compatibility analysis tool and quite a few issues with Squirrel pop up - all of them categorized as "not supported".
I am very much interested to moving my WPF application to .NET Core 3.0 and it would be a shame (mildly put) to lose Squirrel.
I am quite confident that I won't be able do it myself. :)

[anaisbetts]

@themightylc You can use Squirrel with .NET Core similarly to how non-C# applications use Squirrel, by running Update.exe, instead of using the C# API

[themightylc]

Oh cool, i wasn't even aware of that. I'll look into it when/if the time
comes to do the port.

Got a couple of other third-party-dependencies, whose developers I have to
pester first ;)

Thank you for the quick response!

Paul Betts [e-mail] schrieb am Sa., 18. Aug. 2018, 19:12:

@themightylc https://github.com/themightylc You can use Squirrel with
.NET Core similarly to how non-C# applications use Squirrel, by running
Update.exe, instead of using the C# API

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[mihaimyh]

@anaisbetts You mean by calling Update.exe from c# code like below?

Process.Start("Update.exe");

[anaisbetts]

@mihaimyh u got it, but you need to use GetEntryAssembly to get your own path, then go up a directory

[mihaimyh]

@anaisbetts How should I handle this situation in debugging mode? I won't have Update.exe in my debugging folder. Should I include Squirrel.exe in the solution?

[mihaimyh]

Another suggestion is: with net .net-core 3 we are able to generate a nuget package for our project right from Visual Studio by adding the following to the .csproj:

<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>

It will be useful if squirrel can releasify that package instead.

[anaisbetts]

@mihaimyh don't run updates in debug mode, that's silly!

As to .Net Core, the packages they generate are useless, you have to package manually, sorry

[mihaimyh]

@anaisbetts Thanks, my question was rather about debugging the updates, but I found my answer here https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows/blob/develop/docs/using/debugging-updates.md

[mihaimyh]

Is there a way to find if the .net-core version of the app was installed successfully by Squirrel before I should proceed with uninstalling the ClickOnce version?

[anaisbetts]

If your app is running, it worked! Put the ClickOnce uninstaller in your app

[eduardomhg]

Are there any plans to port the squirrel.windows NuGet package to .NET Standard/.NET Core so we can use the UpdateManager in a .NET Core 3 WPF application (for example)?

[Macready31]

@eduardomhg Squirrel ports to .Net core pretty cleanly. The most irritating part was that its dependent packages need to be upgraded to .Net Standard versions, and there were some breaking API changes in at least a couple (Splat and SharpCompress IIRC), and a couple others didn't offer .Net Standard packages at all (Delta Compression, WpfAnimation). But fortunately everything is open source, so it was fairly straightforward to track down the relevant commits and see what changes were required, and to create builds of the projects that hadn't yet been ported.

There's a special circumstance with migrating to Core, though. Anyone with an existing legacy framework application in the field (like me) is in a weird spot. Squirrel handles the underlying framework dependency via its setup program, but users are past that step. So we either have to ask them to install the Core runtime, or live with self-contained dists.

Anyway, I am doing functional and integration testing on the migrated projects as time allows. If I make it as far as a successful Squirrel deployment of my own application's .Net Core port, I'll consider my efforts successful and share what I've done.

[anaisbetts]

Are there any plans to port the squirrel.windows NuGet package to .NET Standard/.NET Core so we can use the UpdateManager in a .NET Core 3 WPF application (for example)?

No, Squirrel's current API is basically set in stone. vNext would probably provide a similar API as a shim, but afaik zero people are working on it. I would _not_ try to port Squirrel to .NET Core wholesale, I'd try to write a version of UpdateManager that uses the non-C# API

[Stijn98s]

I have got it working with a Winforms .net core 3.0 application

[mihaimyh]

I have got it working with a Winforms .net core 3.0 application

Mind sharing implementation details?

[Stijn98s]

it is the same as .net framework. you can use de example .nuspec and change the implementing files to bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\*.*. Here is mine https://pastebin.com/wVEZSxnr. Also with .net core you can automaticly generate the .nuspec and .nupkg with setting true in the .csproj (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/quickstart/create-and-publish-a-package-using-the-dotnet-cli)

[Stijn98s]

and downgrade to 1.9.0. with 1.9.1 i couldn't access the namespace. still debugging why

[bbilginn]

it is the same as .net framework. you can use de example .nuspec and change the implementing files to bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\*.*. Here is mine https://pastebin.com/wVEZSxnr. Also with .net core you can automaticly generate the .nuspec and .nupkg with setting true in the .csproj (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/quickstart/create-and-publish-a-package-using-the-dotnet-cli)

exclude worked like this <file src="bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\publish\*.*" target="lib\netcoreapp3.1\" exclude="**\*.pdb;**\*.nupkg;**\*.vshost.*"/>

thanks for your comments

[Jonesie]

it is the same as .net framework. you can use de example .nuspec and change the implementing files to bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\*.*. Here is mine https://pastebin.com/wVEZSxnr. Also with .net core you can automaticly generate the .nuspec and .nupkg with setting true in the .csproj (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/quickstart/create-and-publish-a-package-using-the-dotnet-cli)

exclude worked like this <file src="bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\publish\*.*" target="lib\netcoreapp3.1\" exclude="**\*.pdb;**\*.nupkg;**\*.vshost.*"/>

thanks for your comments

If my app is a standalone publish Im assuming I dont have any framework dependencies?

[bbilginn]

it is the same as .net framework. you can use de example .nuspec and change the implementing files to bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\*.*. Here is mine https://pastebin.com/wVEZSxnr. Also with .net core you can automaticly generate the .nuspec and .nupkg with setting true in the .csproj (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/quickstart/create-and-publish-a-package-using-the-dotnet-cli)

exclude worked like this <file src="bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\publish\*.*" target="lib\netcoreapp3.1\" exclude="**\*.pdb;**\*.nupkg;**\*.vshost.*"/>
thanks for your comments

If my app is a standalone publish Im assuming I dont have any framework dependencies?

Unfortunately. I think it will happen when squirrel gives for 3.x support in the future.