Need a list of Available SDK Versions

[laultman]

While the content is correct it is pretty much useless since it is so old. What is needed is a maintained list of SDK versions so that we can select the correct one. If it is not found on our machine it is ignored without any notice to the developer. If we get it wrong by even one character it is ignored.

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• ID: a94c335b-0b65-96cc-1c25-65777fbe4bb5
• Version Independent ID: 6d80613f-42dc-35d7-aeff-3187a36dbbca
• Content: global.json reference
• Content Source: docs/core/tools/global-json.md
• Service: dotnet-core
• GitHub Login: @blackdwarf
• Microsoft Alias: mairaw

[mairaw]

Thanks @laultman for your feedback. I'm currently working on an updated version of that topic that I'm hoping to finish this week and you can provide feedback on that on PR #4704, if you'd like.

However, having a list of SDK versions doesn't seem like it's feasible. There can be so many. I think a better addition would be mentioning the new option for the dotnet command --list-sdks to help you see what you have installed in your machine already.

For example, this is what I get when I run this in one of my machines:

C:\>dotnet --list-sdks
1.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
1.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
1.1.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.0.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.102 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.103 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.104 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.300-preview1-008174 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.300-preview3-008443 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
2.1.300-rc1-008673 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

/cc @KathleenDollard

[dasMulli]

I like to use https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/master/release-notes/releases.json as my "source of trouth" esp. for download center links to the SDKs and checksums to update the homebew cask.

@laultman does that help you? e.g. you could power a dropdown or a "get-latest" script from that file.

[laultman]

@mairaw The reason for the request is because I "don't" know what the number sometimes should be. With a complete list as mention by @dasMulli I can go get the one I might want. It can be a long list as you mentioned. A link is sufficient to the full list as it is now.

[mairaw]

@leecow would releases.json give me the main supported sdk version numbers? Or what does it mean for a version to be listed in that file?

The reason why I'm hesitant about this change @laultman is that not all versions are listed there and people can still install nightly builds, etc. and use this technique to pin down the sdk version. For example, if you look at the list of versions I pasted above for the ones I have on my machine, some of them are not on the releases.json file. For example, 1.0.0, 1.1.0, and 2.1.300-preview3-008443 are not in that file.

[laultman]

@mairaw @leecow I'll throw in my two cents. I could easily see what was installed. Only one version. I'd spun up an new Azure VM and installed VS 2017. I did not have any global.json file at all in my projects. VS was throwing a warning, offering that I should have a global.json with a hot link to the page you are responsible for. I had no idea what the SDK's exact version should be nor did I know that it should be the one installed on my machine. All I has was the very old example from 1.0. That gave me enough to believe that the package label was probably not the version number I needed. After a couple hours searching Lee gave me the answer I needed - where to look. So maybe in your document you might point out to those on the bleeding edge who get the nightly builds to make sure they have the right one. "For what its worth."

[mairaw]

@laultman what kind of project it was? EF project? I'm just trying to understand the scenario where this is showing up and linking to our topic, in order to call out things explicitly.

@divega I see that you have a FWLink for that page. Can you explain the scenario where that link shows up? I'll follow up with an offline email too on some changes we need to make to that link.

[mairaw]

@divega has created an issue for the EF docs with some background info: dotnet/EntityFramework.Docs#697

Can you confirm that the error message you were seeing is something like the following, @laultman?
Startup project '{startupProject}' targets framework '.NETCoreApp' version '{targetFrameworkVersion}'. This version of the Entity Framework Core .NET Command-line Tools only supports version 2.0 or higher. For information on using older versions of the tools, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=871254

Thanks!

[leecow]

@mairaw - the releases.json catalogs the latest official releases. Daily builds are not tracked.