How to publish environment specific appsettings in .Net core app?

Question

I have 3 environment specific appsettings files in my .Net core application

in project.json I have setup publishOptions like this. ( based on suggestion here)

"publishOptions": {     "include": [       "wwwroot",             "appsettings.development.json",       "appsettings.staging.json",       "appsettings.production.json",       "web.config"     ]   }, 

I have 3 corresponding startup classes that uses appropriate appsettings based on environment

var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()     .SetBasePath(env.ContentRootPath)     .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: false, reloadOnChange: true); 

However when I publish the application then all 3 appsettings files end up in all environments. How do I publish environment specific appsetting file?

Answer 1

If someone else is wondering how to use different appsettings for multiple environments here is a possible solution.

dotnet publish --configuration [Debug|Release] will copy the appropriate appsettings.json file into the publish folder if *.csproj has a conditional logic for these files:

• First in the .pubxml publish profile file (can be found in Properties->PublishProfiles of Visual Studio) disable that all content files are included by default

<PropertyGroup>     <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>     <EnableDefaultContentItems>false</EnableDefaultContentItems> </PropertyGroup> 

• Then specify conditional Debug/Release logic

<Choose>     <When Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">       <ItemGroup>         <None Include="appsettings.json" CopyToOutputDirectory="Always" CopyToPublishDirectory="Always" />         <None Include="appsettings.prod.json" CopyToOutputDirectory="Never" CopyToPublishDirectory="Never" />       </ItemGroup>     </When>     <When Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">       <ItemGroup>         <None Include="appsettings.json" CopyToOutputDirectory="Never" CopyToPublishDirectory="Never" />         <None Include="appsettings.prod.json" CopyToOutputDirectory="Always" CopyToPublishDirectory="Always" />       </ItemGroup>     </When> </Choose> 

• Finally inside Startup.cs try to load both files

public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env) {     var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()         .SetBasePath(env.ContentRootPath)         .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.prod.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)         .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)         .AddEnvironmentVariables();      Configuration = builder.Build(); } 

I hope this solution, has been helpful.