[useerup]

1. Create a new web project (it is actually a console app)

2. In program.cs add the following lines at the top:

    Console.Write("Port number:");
    var port = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

3. Change the bottom line App.Run()` to

    app.Run($"https://localhost:{port}");

You now have an application which asks for a port and launches your empty website on that port.

A `Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web` project is still a console app. The "web" variant has some other default packages and (crucially) it has some other defaults for how to compile files such as cshtml.

[luuio]

I can confidently tell you that what you put here won't work. Try it.

[useerup]

I did. It works. The above code lines are cut directly from a test project that I made.

Several people have pointed out how a web app in .NET 5/6 is really a console app which only starts a web server configured with an application and waits for it to complete (i.e. shut down).

It really is that simple.

[luuio]

The whole point here is that the project does not target the Sdk.Web thing. Yours only works because the project is targeting Sdk.Web (instead of Sdk).

When I said console app, I literally meant using the project that you would create if you do `dotnet new console`.

To copy from my other comment:

That is exactly the thing. I do not want to have the Sdk=...Web/Worker. Imagine this scenario, you started a new project with the Sdk targeting Worker. Then you need that binary to also target web. What do you do?

- If you switch the project to Sdk=...Web, you won't have the dependencies to build the worker services.

- If you keep it as Sdk=...Worker, you won't have the dependencies to build asp.net

[useerup]

The "Sdk.Web thing" is the way the project is built.

As I and several people in this thread has pointed out to you, the application the resulting application is not a "web" application. It is a console app that launches a webserver.

The Sdk (without web) is not designed to compile cshtml and/or razor source files. It has nothing to do with package dependencies.

If you do want to start of with a console app sdk, then look at "minimal API". You simply add package references to Microsoft.AspNetCore and Microsoft.AspNetCore.App to your console app, and then you can start using the minimal API samples. They will also launch a website.

The example I showed you above was literally adding two lines and changing one line; and then you had a console app which asked the port and launched a webserver on that port.

If you start from a console app, you will not have build targets configured for cdhtml and razor files. However, to prove that you can launch a webserver the same way you can do this (yes I have tried it and it works):

1) Add dependencies to your "console sdk" project:

    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore" Version="2.2.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.App" Version="2.2.8" />

2) Replace program.cs with this (this is the entire app):

    using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
    var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
    var app = builder.Build();
    app.MapGet("/", () => "Hello World!");
    app.Run();

Voila. A web server.

[luuio]

Can you build with just these package references? because I did exactly did a while ago and I could not.

[davidfowl]

This is almost the correct answer, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30667145 is more accurate.