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title description keywords author manager ms.date ms.topic ms.prod ms.technology ms.devlang ms.assetid
Packages, Metapackages and Frameworks
Packages, Metapackages and Frameworks
.NET, .NET Core
richlander
wpickett
06/20/2016
article
.net-core
.net-core-technologies
dotnet
609b0845-49e7-4864-957b-21ffe1b93bf2

Packages, Metapackages and Frameworks

.NET Core is a platform made of NuGet packages. Some product experiences benefit from fine-grained definition of packages while others from coarse-grained. To accommodate this duality, the product is distributed as a fine-grained set of packages and then described in courser chunks with a package type informally called a "metapackage".

Each of the .NET Core packages support being run on multiple .NET runtimes, represented as frameworks. Some of those frameworks are traditional frameworks, like net46, representing the .NET Framework. Another set is new frameworks that can be thought of as "package-based frameworks", which establish a new model for defining frameworks. These package-based frameworks are entirely formed and defined as packages, forming a strong relationship between packages and frameworks.

Packages

.NET Core is split into a set of packages, which provide primitives, higher-level data types, app composition types and common utilities. Each of these packages represent a single assembly of the same name. For example, System.Runtime contains System.Runtime.dll.

There are advantages to defining packages in a fine-grained manner:

  • Fine-grained packages can ship on their own schedule with relatively limited testing of other packages.
  • Fine-grained packages can provide differing OS and CPU support.
  • Fine-grained packages can have dependencies specific to only one library.
  • Apps are smaller because unreferenced packages don't become part of the app distribution.

Some of these benefits are only used in certain circumstances. For example, NET Core packages will typically ship on the same schedule with the same platform support. In the case of servicing, fixes can be distributed and installed as small single package updates. Due to the narrow scope of change, the validation and time to make a fix available is limited to what is needed for a single library.

The following is a list of the key NuGet packages for .NET Core:

Packages are referenced in project.json. In the example below, the System.Runtime package is referenced.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "System.Runtime": "4.1.0"
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netstandard1.5": {}
  }
}

In most cases, you will not reference the lower-level .NET Core packages directly since you'll end up with too many packages to manage. Instead, you'll reference a metapackage.

Metapackages

Metapackages are a NuGet package convention for describing a set of packages that are meaningful together. They represent this set of packages by making them dependencies. They can optionally establish a framework for this set of packages by specifying a framework.

By referencing a metapackage, you are, in effect, adding a reference to each of its dependent packages as a single gesture. That means that all of the libraries in those packages (refs or libs) are available for IntelliSense (or similar experience) and for publishing (libs only) your app.

Note: The 'lib' and 'ref' terms refer to folders in NuGet packages. 'ref' folders describe the public API of a package via assembly metadata. 'lib' folders contain the implementation of that public API for a given framework.

There are advantages to using metapackages:

  • Provides a convenient user experience to reference a large set of fine-grained packages.
  • Defines a set of packages (including specific versions) that are tested and work well together.

The .NET Standard Library metapackage:

  • NETStandard.Library - Describes the libraries that are part of the ".NET Standard Library". Applies to all .NET implementations (for example, .NET Framework, .NET Core and Mono) that support the .NET Standard Library. Establishes the 'netstandard' framework.

These are the key .NET Core metapackages:

Metapackages are referenced just like any other NuGet package in project.json.

In the following example, the NETStandard.Library meta package is referenced, which is used for creating libraries that are portable across .NET runtimes.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "NETStandard.Library": "1.5.0"
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netstandard1.5": {}
  }
}

In the following example, the Microsoft.NETCore.App metapackage is referenced, which is used for creating apps and libraries that are intended to run on and take full advantage of .NET Core. It provides access to a larger set of libraries than are provided by NETStandard.Library.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "Microsoft.NETCore.App": "1.0.0"
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netcoreapp1.0": {}
  }
}

Frameworks

.NET Core packages each support a set of frameworks, declared with framework folders (within the lib and ref folders mentioned earlier). Frameworks describe an available API set (and potentially other characteristics) that you can rely on when you target a given framework. They are versioned as new APIs are added.

For example, System.IO.FileSystem supports the following frameworks:

  • .NETFramework,Version=4.6
  • .NETStandard,Version=1.3
  • 6 Xamarin platforms (for example, xamarinios10)

It is useful to contrast the first two of these frameworks, since they are examples of the two different ways that frameworks are defined.

The .NETFramework,Version=4.6 framework represents the available APIs in the .NET Framework 4.6. You can produce libraries compiled with the .NET Framework 4.6 reference assemblies and then distribute those libraries in NuGet packages in a net46 lib folder. It will be used for apps that target the .NET Framework 4.6 or that are compatible with it. This is how all frameworks have traditionally worked.

The .NETStandard,Version=1.3 framework is a package-based framework. It relies on packages that target the framework to define and expose APIs in terms of the framework.

Package-based Frameworks

There is a two-way relationship between frameworks and packages. The first part is defining the APIs available for a given framework, for example netstandard1.3. Packages that target netstandard1.3 (or compatible frameworks, like netstandard1.0) define the APIs available for netstandard1.3. That may sound like a circular definition, but it isn't. By virtue of being "package-based", the API definition for the framework comes from packages. The framework itself doesn't define any APIs.

The second part of the relationship is asset selection. Packages can contain assets for multiple frameworks. Given a reference to a set of packages and/or metapackages, the framework is needed to determine which asset should be selected, for example net46 or netstandard1.3. It is important to select the correct asset. For example, a net46 asset is not likely to be compatible with .NET Framework 4.0 or .NET Core 1.0.

Package-based Framework Composition

You can see this relationship in the image above. The API targets and defines the framework. The framework is used for asset selection. The asset gives you the API.

It is an interesting question of where a package-based framework's definition ends and where consumption of that definition starts. One can consider your view of the framework as a function of a given project.json file. Your dependencies create your view of the framework, independent of the publisher(s) of those dependencies.

The two primary package-based frameworks used with .NET Core are:

  • netstandard
  • netcoreapp

.NET Standard

The .NET Standard (TFM: netstandard) framework represents the APIs defined by and built on top of the .NET Standard Library. Libraries that are intended to run on multiple runtimes should target this framework. They will be supported on any .NET Standard compliant runtime, such as .NET Core, .NET Framework and Mono/Xamarin. Each of these runtimes supports a set of .NET Standard versions, depending on which APIs they implement.

The NETStandard.Library metapackage targets the netstandard framework. The most common way to target netstandard is by referencing this metapackage. It describes and provides access to the ~40 .NET libraries and associated APIs that define the .NET Standard Library. You can reference additional packages that target netstandard to get access to additional APIs.

A given NETStandard.Library version matches the highest netstandard version it exposed (via its closure). The framework reference in project.json is used to select the correct assets from the underlying packages. In this case, netstandard1.5 assets are required, as opposed to netstandard1.4 or net46, for example.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "NETStandard.Library": "1.5.0"
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netstandard1.5": {}
  }
}

The framework and metapackage references in project.json do not need to match. For example, the following project.json is valid.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "NETStandard.Library": "1.5.0"
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netstandard1.3": {}
  }
}

It may seem strange to target netstandard1.3 but use the 1.5.0 version of NETStandard.Library. It is a valid use-case, since the metapackage maintains support for older netstandard versions. It could be the case you've standardized on the 1.5.0 version of the metapackage and use it for all your libraries, which target a variety of netstandard versions. With this approach, you only need to restore NETStandard.Library 1.5.0 and not earlier versions.

The reverse would not be valid: targeting netstandard1.5 with the 1.3.0 version of NETStandard.Library. You cannot target a higher framework with a lower metapackage, since the lower version metapackage will not expose any assets for that higher framework. The [versioning scheme] for metapackages asserts that metapackages match the highest version of the framework they describe. By virtue of the versioning scheme, the first version of NETStandard.Library is v1.5.0 given that it contains netstandard1.5 assets. v1.3.0 is used in the example above, for symmetry with the example above, but does not actually exist.

.NET Core Application

The .NET Core Application (TFM: netcoreapp) framework represents the packages and associated APIs that come with the .NET Core distribution and the console application model that it provides. .NET Core apps must use this framework, due to targeting the console application model, as should libraries that intended to run only on .NET Core. Using this framework restricts apps and libraries to running only on .NET Core.

The Microsoft.NETCore.App metapackage targets the netcoreapp framework. It provides access to ~60 libraries, ~40 provided by the NETStandard.Library package and ~20 more in addition. You can reference additional libraries that target netcoreapp or compatible frameworks, such as netstandard, to get access to additional APIs.

Most of the additional libraries provided by Microsoft.NETCore.App also target netstandard given that their dependencies are satisfied by other netstandard libraries. That means that netstandard libraries can also reference those packages as dependencies.