This sample demonstrates a very simple .NET Core host. It is part of the .NET Core hosting tutorial. Please see that topic for a more detailed explanation of this sample.
.NET Core applications are always run by a host. In most cases, the default dotnet.exe host is used.
It is possible to create your own host, though, to enable starting and running .NET Core code from a native application, or to enable a high degree of control over how the runtime operates.
This sample only builds for Windows currently, but the same approach can be used to host .NET Core on Linux or Mac. There are also alternative hosting APIs that may be easier to use in a Unix environment. This sample shows how to use the ICLRRuntimeHost2 interface. Future samples will cover Unix scenarios.
More complex, real-world hosts can be found in the dotnet/coreclr repository.
To build this sample, just use msbuild: msbuild.exe SampleHost.vcxproj. Be sure to build for x64 to host a 64-bit verson of .NET Core (coreclr.dll) and Win32 to host a 32-bit version.
To run the host, you will need a .NET Core-targeted app to run with it.
- Build a simple .NET Core app (like 'hello world') as a self-contained app (since this host looks for coreclr.dll next to the target app) and publish it.
- Run the SampleHost.exe built previously and pass the path to your app's published dll as a command line argument.
The sample host should start the .NET Core runtime and execute your app.