A .NET tool is a special NuGet package that contains a console application. The tool binaries are installed in a default directory that is added to the PATH environment variable.
You can also install it as a global tool in a custom location (also known as a tool-path tool).
PATH environment variable..NET Core 2.1 supports Global Tools that are available globally from the command line. The extensibility model in previous versions of .NET Core made custom tools available on a per-project basis only by using DotnetCliToolReference.
To install a tool as a global tool, use the -g or --global option of dotnet tool install, as shown in the following example:
dotnet tool install -g dotnetsay
The output shows the command used to invoke the tool and the version installed, similar to the following example:
You can invoke the tool using the following command: dotnetsay
Tool 'dotnetsay' (version '2.1.4') was successfully installed.
The default location for a tool's binaries depends on the operating system:
| OS | Path |
|---|---|
| Linux/macOS | $HOME/.dotnet/tools |
| Windows | %USERPROFILE%\.dotnet\tools |
To install a tool as a global tool in a custom location, use the --tool-path option of dotnet tool install, as shown in the following examples.
On Windows
dotnet tool install dotnetsay --tool-path c:\dotnet-tools
On Linux or macOS
dotnet tool install dotnetsay --tool-path ~/bin
The .NET SDK doesn't add this location automatically to the PATH environment variable. To invoke a tool-path tool, you have to make sure the command is available by using one of the following methods:
Once installed, the tool can be run from the command line by specifying the tool name.
In .NET Core 2.1 SDK, all tools operations use the dotnet tool command. The following options are available.
dotnet tool install to install a tool.dotnet tool update to uninstall and reinstall a tool, which effectively updates it.dotnet tool list to list currently installed tools.dotnet tool uninstall to uninstall currently installed tools.