Commands: Assembly-based Command Line Interface (ef.exe)

[bricelam]

Like dotnet-ef but with less project.json and more *.dll

A rudimentary version of this is available in the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools package (under the tools directory), but it is currently just an implementation detail of the PMC commands.

A few TODO items to make it generally useful:

• Don't output ANSI escape codes (covered by Tools: Console color broken #6962)
• Review interaction between --assembly, --startup-assembly, and the working directory
• Fix argument parsing quirks (covered by Commands: Better argument parsing #6593)
• Review argument defaults
• Improve the experience of running it on a server (covered by Improve user experience for running migrations after deployment #6313)

[bricelam]

We'll probably need a few different versions.

Executable	Description
ef.clr	AnyCPU, Full .NET
ef.clr.x86	32-bit, Full .NET
ef.coreclr	CoreCLR

We could probably have just an ef driver that is smart enough to delegate based on the assemblies passed in.

With the driver, we could even hide the fact that there are multiple versions by packaging them into the driver and extracting them behind the scenes.

I wonder if we could use the fact that .NET Core unifies on Full .NET to our advantage in the architecture... Something like a single "portable" assembly that we run via the appropriate CLR/CoreCLR host.

[bricelam]

(Pulling this into 1.1.0 since it is has become an implementation detail of #5334.)

[bricelam]

--assembly always has to be specified. Does anyone think it should be positional instead?

# Current
ef migration list --assembly WebApplication1.exe

# Possible
ef migrations list WebApplication1.exe
ef database update WebApplication1.exe Migration7

Or is it too awkward when combined with sub-commands and other positional arguments?

[bricelam]

We've decided to leave --assembly as a named parameter.

[bricelam]

I believe it's ready for prime time. I've filed dotnet/EntityFramework.Docs#328 to document it.

[andycmaj]

hello... not understanding which versions --assembly is expected to work in...

i'm trying to run migrations on a published dll and --assembly doesn't seem to fix the missing project error:

(note that i'm using dotnet-ef.dll published along with my app because i added a PackageReference on <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCored.Tools.DotNet" Version="2.1.0-preview1-final" />)

root@82332f775c88:/app# dotnet exec --depsfile KanbanLab.FrontEnd.deps.json --runtimeconfig KanbanLab.FrontEnd.runtimeconfig.json Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design.dll database update --assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --startup-assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --verbose --context KanbanContext

Unhandled Exception: System.MissingMethodException: Entry point not found in assembly 'Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design, Version=2.0.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=adb9793829ddae60'.
Aborted
root@82332f775c88:/app# dotnet exec --depsfile KanbanLab.FrontEnd.deps.json --runtimeconfig KanbanLab.FrontEnd.runtimeconfig.json dotnet-ef.dll database update --assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --startup-assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --verbose --context KanbanContext
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.CommandException: No project was found. Change the current working directory or use the --project option.
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.RootCommand.FindProjects(String path, String errorWhenNoProject, String errorWhenMultipleProjects)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.RootCommand.Execute()
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.CommandLine.CommandLineApplication.Execute(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Program.Main(String[] args)
No project was found. Change the current working directory or use the --project option.
root@82332f775c88:/app# dotnet exec --depsfile KanbanLab.FrontEnd.deps.json --runtimeconfig KanbanLab.FrontEnd.runtimeconfig.json dotnet-ef.dll --assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --startup-assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll database update --verbose --context KanbanContext

                     _/\__
               ---==/    \\
         ___  ___   |.    \|\
        | __|| __|  |  )   \\\
        | _| | _|   \_/ |  //|\\
        |___||_|       /   \\\/\\

Entity Framework Core .NET Command-line Tools 2.1.0-preview1-28290

Usage: dotnet ef [options] [command]

Options:
  --version        Show version information
  -h|--help        Show help information
  -v|--verbose     Show verbose output.
  --no-color       Don't colorize output.
  --prefix-output  Prefix output with level.

Commands:
  database    Commands to manage the database.
  dbcontext   Commands to manage DbContext types.
  migrations  Commands to manage migrations.

Use "dotnet ef [command] --help" for more information about a command.
root@82332f775c88:/app# ef
bash: ef: command not found
root@82332f775c88:/app# dotnet dotnet-ef.dll
A fatal error was encountered. The library 'libhostpolicy.so' required to execute the application was not found in '/app/'.
Failed to run as a self-contained app. If this should be a framework-dependent app, add the /app/dotnet-ef.runtimeconfig.json file specifying the appropriate framework.
root@82332f775c88:/app# dotnet exec --depsfile KanbanLab.FrontEnd.deps.json --runtimeconfig KanbanLab.FrontEnd.runtimeconfig.json dotnet-ef.dll --assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll --startup-assembly KanbanLab.FrontEnd.dll database update --verbose --context KanbanContext

                     _/\__
               ---==/    \\
         ___  ___   |.    \|\
        | __|| __|  |  )   \\\
        | _| | _|   \_/ |  //|\\
        |___||_|       /   \\\/\\

Entity Framework Core .NET Command-line Tools 2.1.0-preview1-28290

Usage: dotnet ef [options] [command]

Options:
  --version        Show version information
  -h|--help        Show help information
  -v|--verbose     Show verbose output.
  --no-color       Don't colorize output.
  --prefix-output  Prefix output with level.

Commands:
  database    Commands to manage the database.
  dbcontext   Commands to manage DbContext types.
  migrations  Commands to manage migrations.

Use "dotnet ef [command] --help" for more information about a command.

[andycmaj]

ended up snatching ef.dll from the package cache during my builds...

    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet" Version="2.1.0-preview1-final" />
    <Content CopyToPublishDirectory="PreserveNewest" Include="$(NuGetPackageRoot)microsoft.entityframeworkcore.tools.dotnet\2.1.0-preview1-final\tools\netcoreapp2.0\*.*" />

so now i can publish with ef.dll and this seems to actually work for migrations, rather than dotnet-ef.dll