Versions in Versions in Versions (AKA the .NET Core Russian Doll)

Ever wonder what version of .NET Core you are running?

Well, that’s simple enough to figure out; simply drop to the command line and type dotnet.You’ll see something like this:

Okay, I have version 1.1.0 installed easy enough. Another way to show this is to type dotnet --version. You'll see something like this:

Wait… what? “Preview”? But I didn’t download a preview. A quick check at the download page on the web proves that I asked for, and got, version 1.1.0:

So Many Versions, So Little Time

Turns out, there are several pieces to the .NET Core SDK, each having its own version. For example, a recent RC4 release contained:

Note: Host contains the Dotnet binary and the policy files. The CLI contains a version of MSBuild, a version of the Core SDK, and more.

The Takeaway

The important thing is not to have all this information memorized. Rather, it’s important because if you are working in a dual (or more) OS environment (for example Windows and Linux), you want to make sure you are using the same versions on all operating systems. This helps prevent errors when building or compiling code across OS lines.