net-generic-host-boilerplate

This is a .NET 6 boilerplate for generic host console apps.

If you're like me and frequently in need of creating long running .NET 6 console apps, then you can use this. It's especially good if your structure and implementation grows over time.

It covers the basic necessities of a generic host console app:

• Logging, via Microsoft.Extensions.Logging. You can plug your own if you want.
• Dependency injection.
• Async/await processing inside the BackgroundService instance.
• Configuration, through environment vars and/or appsettings.json.

Installation

Nothing fancy, just run:

git clone git@github.com:marceln/net-generic-host-boilerplate.git

Then you can change the solution and project names.

Running

You can run this from Visual Studio 2022 or through the .NET CLI but don't forget first to set your DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT environment variable.

In Visual Studio 2022:

• Project properties -> Debug -> Open debug launch profiles UI
• Edit launchSettings.json:

{
  "profiles": {
    "GenericHostBoilerplate.App": {
      "commandName": "Project",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
      }
    }
  }
}

The latter also works for Visual Studio Code.

Implementation

The boilerplate provides a BackgroundService implementation as well as an ExampleService so it can demonstrate dependency injection. In the BackgroundHostedService class you can also see how you can use some other framework-provided services, like IConfiguration, ILogger<>, IHostApplicationLifetime and IHostEnvironment.

Have fun with it!